Myanmar, or Burma as the nation has been known throughout history, is
one of the major countries following Theravada Buddhism. In recent years Myanmar has
attained special eminence as the host for the Sixth Buddhist Council, held in Yangon
(Rangoon) between 1954 and 1956, and as the source from which two of the major systems of
Vipassana meditation have emanated out into the greater world: the tradition springing
from the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw of Thathana Yeiktha and that springing from Sayagyi U Ba
Khin of the International Meditation Centre.

This booklet is intended to offer a short history of Buddhism in
Myanmar from its origins through the country's loss of independence to Great Britain in
the late nineteenth century. I have not dealt with more recent history as this has already
been well documented. To write an account of the development of a religion in any country
is a delicate and demanding undertaking and one will never be quite satisfied with the
result. This booklet does not pretend to be an academic work shedding new light on the
subject. It is designed, rather, to provide the interested non-academic reader with a
brief overview of the subject.

The booklet has been written for the Buddhist Publication Society to
complete its series of Wheel titles on the history of the Sasana in the main Theravada
Buddhist countries. The material has been sifted and organised from the point of view of a
practising Buddhist. Inevitably it thus involves some degree of personal interpretation. I
have given importance to sources that would be accorded much less weight in a strictly
academic treatment of the subject, as I feel that in this case the oral tradition may well
be more reliable than modern historians would normally admit.

One of the objectives of the narrative is to show that the Buddha's
Teaching did not make a lasting impression on Myanmar immediately upon first arrival. The
Sasana had to be re-introduced or purified again and again from the outside until Myanmar
had matured to the point of becoming one of the main shrines where the Theravada Buddhist
teachings are preserved. The religion did not develop in Myanmar. Rather, the Myanmar
people developed through the religion until the Theravada faith became embedded in their
culture and Pali Buddhism became second nature to them.

I dedicate this work to my teachers, Mother Sayamagyi and Sayagyi U
Chit Tin.

Roger Bischoff

International Meditation Centre UK

Splatts House

Heddington, Calne

Wilts SN11 OPE

1. Earliest Contacts with Buddhism

Myanmar and its Peoples

There are four dominant ethnic groups in the recorded history of
Myanmar: the Mon, the Pyu, the Myanmar, and the Shan.

Uncertainty surrounds the origins of the Mon; but it is clear that, at
least linguistically, they are related to the Khmer.[1] What is known is that they settled
in the south of Myanmar and Thailand while the Khmer made northern Thailand, Laos, and
Cambodia their home. These two peoples were probably the first migrants to the region,
apart from Indian merchants who established trading colonies along the coast. The Mon with
their distinct language and culture competed for centuries with the Myanmar. However,
today their influence and language is limited to remote areas of the south.

The Pyu, like the Myanmar, are a people of Tibeto-Burman origin with a
distinct culture and language. They lived in the area around Prome long before the Myanmar
pushed into the plains of Myanmar from the north. Their language was closely related to
the language of the Myanmar and was later absorbed by it. Their script was in use until
about the fourteenth century, but was then lost.

The Myanmar people began to colonise the plains of Myanmar only towards
the middle of the first millennium AD. They came from the mountainous northern regions and
may well have originated in the Central Asian plains.

After the Myanmar, the Shan flooded in from the North, finally
conquering the entire region of Myanmar and Thailand. The Thai people are descended from
Shan tribes. The northeast region of modern Myanmar is still inhabited predominantly by
Shan tribes.

The Region

In the sixth century BC, most of what we now know as Myanmar, Thailand,
Laos, and Cambodia was sparsely populated. While migrants from the east coast of India had
formed trading colonies along the coast of the Gulf of Martaban, these coastal areas of
Myanmar and Thailand were also home to the Mon. By this time, the Khmer probably
controlled Laos, Cambodia, and northern Thailand, while Upper Myanmar may already have
been occupied to some extent by Myanmar tribes.

As these early settlers did not use lasting materials for construction,
our knowledge of their civilisation remains scant. We do know, however, that their way of
life was very simple -- as it remains today in rural areas -- probably requiring only
wooden huts with palm-leaf roofs for habitation. We can assume that they were not
organised into units larger than village communities and that they did not possess a
written language. Their religion must have been some form of nature worship or animism,
still found today among the more remote tribes of the region.

There were also more highly developed communities of Indian origin, in
the form of trading settlements located along the entire coast from Bengal to Borneo. In
Myanmar, they were located in Thaton (Suddhammapura), Pegu (Ussa), Yangon (Ukkala, then
still on the coast), and Mrauk-U (Dhannavati) in Arakan; also probably along the
Tenasserim and Arakan coasts. These settlers had mainly migrated from Orissa on the
northeastern coast of the Indian subcontinent, and also from the Deccan in the southeast.
In migrating to these areas, they had also brought their own culture and religion with
them. Initially, the contact between the Hindu traders and the Mon peasants must have been
limited. However, the Indian settlements, their culture and traditions, were eventually
absorbed into the Mon culture.

G.E. Harvey, in his History of Burma, relates a Mon legend which refers
to the Mon fighting Hindu strangers who had come back to re-conquer the country that had
formerly belonged to them.[2] This Mon tale confirms the theory that Indian people had
formed the first communities in the region but that these were eventually replaced by the
Mon with the development of their own civilisation. As well as the Indian trading
settlements, there were also some Pyu settlements, particularly in the area of Prome where
a flourishing civilisation later developed.

Also, it is assumed that some degree of migration from India to the
region of Tagaung and Mogok in Upper Myanmar had taken place through Assam and later
through Manipur, but the "hinterland" was of course much less attractive to
traders than the coastal regions with their easy access by sea. A tradition of Myanmar
says that Tagaung was founded by Abhiraja, a prince of the Sakyans (the tribe of the
Buddha), who had migrated to Upper Myanmar from Nepal in the ninth century BC. The city
was subsequently conquered by the Chinese in approximately 600 BC, and Pagan and Prome
were founded by refugees fleeing southward. In fact, some historians believe that, like
the Myanmar, the Sakyans were a Mongolian rather than an Indo-Aryan race, and that the
Buddha's clansmen were derived from Mongolian stock.

First Contacts with the Buddha's Teachings

The source of information for many of the events related forthwith is
the Sasanavamsa.[3] The Sasanavamsa is a chronicle written in Pali by a bhikkhu,[4]
Pannasami, for the Fifth Buddhist Council held in Mandalay in 1867. As the Sasanavamsa is
a recent compilation, many events mentioned therein may be doubted. However, as it draws
on both written records, some of which are no longer available, and on the oral tradition
of Myanmar, information can be included in this account with the understanding that it is
open to verification.

There are many instances in the history of Southeast Asian tribes in
which a conquering people incorporates into its own traditions not only the civilisation
of the conquered, but also their clan gods, royal lineage, and thereby their history. This
fact would explain the visits of the Buddha to Thaton and Shwesettaw in the Mon and
Myanmar oral tradition, and the belief of the Arakanese that the Buddha visited their king
and left behind an image of himself for them to worship. Modern historiography will, of
course, dismiss these stories as fabrications made out of national pride, as the Myanmar
had not even arrived in the region at the time of the Buddha. However, it is possible that
the Myanmar and Arakanese integrated into their own lore the oral historical tradition of
their Indian predecessors. This does not prove that the visits really took place, but it
seems a more palatable explanation of the existence of these accounts than simply putting
them down to historical afterthought of a Buddhist people eager to connect itself with the
origins of their religion.

The Sasanavamsa mentions several visits of the Buddha to Myanmar and
one other important event: the arrival of the hair relics in Ukkala (Yangon) soon after
the Buddha's enlightenment.

The Arrival of the Hair Relics

Tapussa and Bhallika, two merchants from Ukkala,[5] were travelling
through the region of Uruvela and were directed to the Buddha by their family god. The
Buddha had just come out of seven weeks of meditation after his awakening and was sitting
under a tree feeling the need for food. Tapussa and Bhallika made an offering of rice cake
and honey to the Buddha and took the two refuges, the refuge in the Buddha and the refuge
in the Dhamma (the Sangha, the third refuge, did not exist yet). As they were about to
depart, they asked the Buddha for an object to worship in his stead and he gave them eight
hairs from his head. After the two returned from their journey, they enshrined the three
hairs in a stupa which is now the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

It is believed in Myanmar that the hill upon which the Shwedagon Pagoda
stands was not haphazardly chosen by Tapussa and Bhallika but was, in fact, the site where
the three Buddhas preceding the Buddha Gotama in this world cycle themselves deposited
relics. Buddha Kakusandha is said to have left his staff on the Theinguttara Hill, the
Buddha Konagamana his water filter, and Buddha Kassapa a part of his robe. Because of
this, the Buddha requested Tapussa and Bhallika to enshrine his relics in this location.
Tapussa and Bhallika travelled far and wide in order to find the hill on which they could
balance a tree without its touching the ground either with the roots or with the crown.
Eventually, they found the exact spot not far from their home in Lower Myanmar where they
enshrined the holy relics in a traditional mound or stupa.[6] The original stupa is said
to have been 27 feet high. Today the Shwedagon pagoda has grown to over 370 feet.

The Buddha's Visits to the Region

The Myanmar oral tradition speaks of four visits of the Buddha to the
region. While these visits were of utmost significance in their own right, they are also
important in having established places of pilgrimage up to the present day.

The Visit to Central Myanmar

According to the Sasanavamsa, the city of Aparanta is situated on the
western shore of the Irrawaddy river at the latitude of Magwe. The Sasanavamsa gives only
a very brief summary of the events surrounding the Buddha's visit to Aparanta, presumably
because these were well known and could be read in the Tipitaka and the commentaries.[7]

Punna, a merchant from Sunaparanta, went to Savatthi on business and
there heard a discourse of the Buddha.[8] Having won faith in the Buddha and the
Teachings, he took ordination as a bhikkhu. After sometime, he asked the Buddha to teach
him a short lesson so that he could return to Sunaparanta and strive for arahatship. The
Buddha warned him that the people of Sunaparanta were fierce and violent, but Punna
replied that he would not allow anger to arise, even if they should kill him. In the
Punnovada Sutta, the Buddha instructed him not to be enticed by that which is pleasant,
and Punna returned and attained arahatship in his country. He won over many disciples and
built a monastery of red sandalwood for the Buddha (according to some chronicles of
Myanmar, the Buddha made the prediction that at the location where the red sandalwood
monastery was, the great king Alaungsithu of Pagan would build a shrine). He then sent
flowers as an invitation to the Buddha and the Buddha came accompanied by five hundred
arahats, spent the night in the monastery, and left again before dawn.[9]

Sakka, the king of the thirty-three devas living in the Tavatimsa
plane, provided five hundred palanquins for the bhikkhus accompanying the Buddha on the
journey to Sunaparanta. But only 499 of the palanquins were occupied. One of them remained
empty until the ascetic Saccabandha, who lived on the Saccabandha mountain in central
Myanmar, joined the Buddha and the 499 bhikkhus accompanying him. On the way to
Sunaparanta, the Buddha stopped in order to teach the ascetic Saccabandha. When Saccabanda
attained arahatship, he then joined the Buddha and completed the total of 500 bhikkhus who
usually travelled with the Master.

On the return journey, the Buddha stopped at the river Nammada close to
the Saccabandha mountain. Here, the Blessed One was invited by the Naga king, Nammada, to
visit and preach to the Nagas, later accepting food from them. The tradition of Myanmar
relates that he left behind a footprint for veneration near this river, which would last
as long as the Sasana (i.e. 5000 years). Another footprint was left in the rock of the
Saccabandha mountain.[10] These footprints, still visible today, were worshipped by the
Mon, Pyu, and Myanmar kings alike and have remained among the holiest places of pilgrimage
in Myanmar. In the fifteenth century, after the decimation of the population through the
Siamese campaigns, knowledge of the footprints was lost. Then, in the year 1638, King
Thalun sent learned bhikkhus to the region; fortuitously, they were able to relocate the
Buddha's footprints. Since then Shwesettaw, the place where the footprints are found, has
once again become an important place of pilgrimage in Myanmar. And in the dry season
thousands of devout Buddhists travel there to pay respects.

The Visit to Arakan

In Dhannavati, whose walls are still partially visible today, the
Mahamuni temple is located on the Sirigutta hill. In this temple, for over two millennia,
the Mahamuni image was enshrined and worshipped. The story of the Mahamuni image, at one
time one of the most revered shrines of Buddhism, is told in the Sappadanapakarana, a work
of a local historian.

Candrasuriya, the king of Dhannavati, on hearing that a Buddha had
arisen in India, desired to go there to learn the Dhamma. The Buddha, aware of his
intention, said to Ananda: "The king will have to pass through forests dangerous to
travellers; wide rivers will impede his journey; he must cross a sea full of monsters. It
will be an act of charity if we go to his dominion, so that he may pay homage without
risking his life."

So the Buddha went there and was received with great pomp by King
Candrasuriya and his people. The Buddha then taught the five and eight precepts and
instructed the king in the ten kingly duties, namely, (1) universal beneficence, (2) daily
paying homage, (3) the showing of mercy, (4) taxes of not more than a tenth part of the
produce, (5) justice, (6) punishment without anger, (7) the support of his subjects as the
earth supports them, (8) the employment of prudent commanders, (9) the taking of good
counsel, and (10) the avoidance of pride. The Buddha remained for a week and on preparing
for his departure the king requested that he leave an image of himself, so that they could
worship him even in his absence. The Buddha consented to this and Sakka the king of the
gods himself formed the image with the metals collected by the king and his people. It was
completed in one week and when the Buddha breathed onto it the people exclaimed that now
there were indeed two Buddhas, so alike was the image to the great sage. Then the Buddha
made a prophesy addressing the image: "I shall pass into Nibbana in my eightieth
year, but you will live for five thousand years which I have foreseen as the duration of
my Teaching."

The Mahamuni image remained in its original location until 1784 when
King Bodawpaya conquered Arakan and had the image transported to Mandalay where a special
shrine, the Arakan pagoda, was built to enshrine the three-meter image. To have this image
in his capital greatly added to his prestige as a Buddhist king, as it was one of the most
sacred objects in the region. The king himself went out of his city to meet the
approaching image with great devotion and "through the long colonnades leading to the
pagoda, there used to come daily from the Myanmar palace, so long as a king reigned there,
sumptuous offerings borne in stately procession, marshalled by a minister and shaded by
the white umbrella."[11]

The Missionaries of the Third Buddhist Council

The Third Buddhist Council was held in the reign of Emperor Asoka in
the year 232 BC in order to purify the Sangha, to reassert orthodox teaching and to refute
heresy. But the work of the Council did not stop there. With the support of Emperor Asoka,
experienced teachers were sent to border regions in order to spread the teachings of the
Buddha. This dispersal of missionaries is recorded in the Mahavamsa, a Sinhalese chronicle
on the history of Buddhism:

When the thera Moggaliputta, the illuminator of the religion of the
Conqueror, had brought the (third) council to an end and when, looking into the future, he
had beheld the founding of the religion in adjacent countries, then in the month of
Katthika he sent forth theras, one here and one there. The thera Majjhantika he sent to
Kasmira and Gandhara, the thera Mahadeva he sent to Mahisamandala. To Vanavasa he sent the
thera named Rakkhita, and to Aparantaka the Yona named Dhammarakkhita; to Maharattha he
sent the thera named Mahadhammarakkhita, but the thera Maharakkhita he sent into the
country of the Yona. He sent the thera Majjhima to the Himalaya country and together with
the thera Uttara, the thera Sona of wondrous might went to Suvannabhumi....[12]

According to the Sasanavamsa, the above mentioned regions are the
following: Kasmira and Gandhara is the right bank of the Indus river south of Kabul;
Mahisamandala is Andhra; Vanavasa is the region around Prome; Aparantaka is west of the
upper Irrawaddy; Maharattha is Thailand; Yona, the country of the Shan tribes; and
Suvannabhumi is Thaton. The Sasanavamsa mentions five places in Southeast Asia where
Asoka's missionaries taught the Buddha's doctrine, and through their teaching many gained
insight and took refuge in the Triple Gem. There are two interesting features mentioned in
the text. First, in order to ordain nuns, bhikkhunis, other bhikkhunis had to be present,
and secondly, the Brahmajala Sutta was preached in Thaton.

The Sasanavamsa goes on to describe sixty thousand women ordaining in
Aparanta. It states that women could not have been ordained without the presence of
bhikkhunis, as in Sri Lanka where women could only be ordained after Mahinda's sister
Sanghamitta had followed her brother there. In this case, the author surmises that
bhikkhunis must have followed Dhammarakkhita to Aparanta at a later stage.

The Brahmajala Sutta, which the arahats Sona and Uttara preached in
Thaton, deals in detail with the different schools of philosophical and religious thought
prevalent in India at the time of the Buddha. The fact that Sona and Uttara chose this
Sutta to convert the inhabitants of Suvannabhumi indicates that they were facing a
well-informed public, familiar with the views of Brahmanism that were refuted by the
Buddha in this discourse. There can be no doubt that only Indian colonisers, not the Mon,
would have been able to follow an analysis of Indian philosophy as profound as the
Brahmajala Sutta.

2. Buddhism in the Mon and Pyu Kingdoms

While there is no conclusive archaeological proof that Buddhism
continued to be practised in southern Myanmar after the missions of the Third Council, the
Sasanavamsa refers to an unbroken lineage of teachers passing on the Dhamma to their
disciples.

The Mon

In a third century AD inscription by a South Indian king in
Nagarjunakonda, the land of the Cilatas is mentioned in a list of countries visited by a
group of bhikkhus. Historians believe the Cilatas or Kiratas (also mentioned by Ptolemy
and in Sanskrit literature) to be identical to the Mon populations of Lower Myanmar.

The inscription states that the bhikkhus sent to the Cilata country
converted the population there to Buddhism. In the same inscription, missions to other
countries such as Sri Lanka are mentioned. It is generally believed that most of these
countries had received earlier Buddhist missionaries sent by Buddhist kings, but as
civilisation in these lands was relatively undeveloped, teachings as profound as the
Buddha's had probably become distorted by local religions or possibly been completely
lost. It is possible that these missions did not so much re-establish Buddhism, but rather
purify the type of Buddhism practised there. Southern India was then the guardian of the
Theravada faith and obviously remained in contact with countries that had been converted
in earlier times but were unable to preserve the purity of the religion.

As has been already mentioned, the first datable archaeological finds
of the Mon civilisation stem from the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in the South of Thailand.
They consist of a Roman oil lamp and a bronze statue of the Buddha which are believed to
be no later than the first or second century AD. In discussing the Mon Theravada Buddhist
civilisation, we cannot remain in Myanmar only. For only by studying the entire sphere of
influence of the Mon in this period, can a comprehensive picture be constructed. This
sphere includes large parts of present day Thailand. In fact, the Chinese Buddhist
pilgrim, Yuan Chwang, who travelled to India in about 630 AD, describes a single Mon
country stretching from Prome to Chenla in the east and including the Irrawaddy and
Sittang deltas. He calls the country Dvaravati, but the annals of the court of China of
the same period mention Dvaravati as a vassal of Thaton. We can, therefore, safely
conclude that the Mon of the region formed a fairly homogenous group in which the
distribution of power was obviously not always evident to the outsider.

The Pyu

Lower Myanmar was also inhabited by another ethnic group, the Pyu, who
were probably closely related to the modern Myanmar. They had their capital at Sri Ksetra
(near modern day Prome) and were also followers of the Theravada Buddhist faith. Chinese
travellers' reports of the mid-third century AD refer to the kingdom of Lin-Yang where
Buddha was venerated by all and where several thousand monks or bhikkhus lived. As
Lin-Yang was to the west of Kamboja[13] and could not be reached by sea, we can infer that
the Chinese travellers must have been referring to the ancient kingdom of Prome. This is
all the more likely as archaeological finds prove that only about one century later Pali
Buddhist texts, including Abhidhamma texts, were studied by the Pyu.

The earliest highly developed urban settlement of the Pyu was
Beikthano, near Prome. However, its importance dwindled towards the sixth century, when
Sri Ksetra became the centre of Pyu civilisation. A major monastery built in the fourth
century has been unearthed at Beikthano. The building, constructed in brick, with a stupa
and shrine located nearby, is identical to the Buddhist monasteries of Nagarjunakonda, the
great Buddhist centre of southern India. It is situated near a stupa and a shrine, a
design which is identical to the one used in South India. Bricks had been used by the Pyus
since the second century AD for the construction of pillared halls, which formed the
temples of their original religion. Interestingly, the Pyu bricks have always been of the
exact dimensions as those used at the time of Emperor Asoka in India. But the brick laying
techniques used in the monastery in Beikthano were far inferior to the ones used in their
southern Indian counterparts.

For such a major edifice as the monastery at Beikthano to have been
constructed, the religion must have been well established at least among the ruling class.
How long it took for Buddhism to become influential in Pyu society is difficult to
determine, but some historians assume that the first contacts with Asokan religious
centres in India took place in the second century AD. This would allow for a period of
development of two hundred years until the first important shrine was built. Despite the
Indian architectural influence, the inferior brick laying techniques found in Beikthano
indicate that indigenous architects and artisans, rather than imported craftsmen or Indian
colonisers, were employed in the construction of monasteries and other important
buildings.

It should, of course, not be forgotten that the Pyu possessed an
architecture of their own and a highly developed urban culture that had evolved quite
independently of Indian influences. Theravada Buddhism found a fertile ground in this
highly developed civilisation. It is probable that the Pyu civilisation was more advanced
than that of the Mon. The Pyu sites found around Prome are the earliest urban sites in
Southeast Asia found to date. The urban developments and datable monuments in Thailand and
Cambodia are only from the seventh century. Older artifacts may have been found in
Thailand, but they were not products of indigenous people and do not prove the existence
of a developed civilisation.

The information we have of the state of the religion in the Mon and Pyu
societies during the first four centuries AD is very limited. However, by the fifth
century, with the development of religious activity in the region, information becomes
more substantive. The historical tradition of Myanmar gives the credit for this religious
resurgence to a well-known Buddhist scholar, Acariya Buddhaghosa.

Buddhaghosa and Myanmar

Acariya Buddhaghosa was the greatest commentator on the Pali Buddhist
texts, whose Visuddhimagga and commentaries to the canon are regarded as authoritative by
Theravada scholars. The chronicles of Myanmar firmly maintain that Buddhaghosa was of Mon
origin and a native of Thaton. They state that his return from Sri Lanka, with the Pali
scriptures, the commentaries, and grammatical works, gave a fresh impetus to the religion.

However, modern historians do not accept that Buddhaghosa was from
Myanmar while some even doubt his existence.[14] Despite this contention, Eliot, in his
Hinduism and Buddhism, gives more weight to circumstantial evidence and writes:

The Burmese tradition that Buddhaghosa was a native of Thaton and
returned thither from Sri Lanka merits more attention than it has received. It can easily
be explained away as patriotic fancy. On the other hand, if Buddhaghosa's object was to
invigorate Hinayanism in India the result of his really stupendous labours was singularly
small, for in India his name is connected with no religious movement. But if we suppose
that he went to Sri Lanka by way of the holy places in Magadha [now Bihar] and returned
from the Coromandal coast [Madras] to Burma where Hinayanism afterwards flourished, we
have at least a coherent narrative.[15]

The Sinhalese chronicles, especially the Mahavamsa, place Buddhaghosa
in the first half of the fifth century. Although he spent most of his active working life
in Sri Lanka, he is also credited with imbuing new life into Theravada Buddhism in South
India, and developing such important centres as Kancipura and Uragapuram that were closely
connected with Prome and Thaton. Proof of this connection can be found in archeological
finds in the environs of Prome which include Pali literature inscribed in the Kadambe
script on gold and stone plates. This script was used in the fifth and sixth century in
southern India.

All in all, Myanmar has a valid case for claiming some connection with
Buddhaghosa. It is, of course, impossible to prove that he was born there or even visited
there, but his influence undoubtedly led to great religious activity in the kingdoms of
Lower Myanmar.

Buddhism in Lower Myanmar: 5th to 11th Centuries

From the fifth century until the conquest of Lower Myanmar by Pagan,
there is a continuous record of Buddhism flourishing in the Mon and Pyu kingdoms. The Mon
kingdoms are mentioned in travel reports of several Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and also in
the annals of the Chinese court. In the fifth century, Thaton and Pegu (Pago) are
mentioned in the Buddhist commentarial literature for the first time.[16] They were now
firmly established on the map as Buddhist centres of learning. Despite this, Buddhism was
not without rivals in the region. This is shown, by the following event some chronicles of
Myanmar mention.

A king of Pago, Tissa by name, had abandoned the worship of the Buddha
and instead practised Brahmanical worship. He persecuted the Buddhists and destroyed
Buddha images or cast them into ditches. A pious Buddhist girl, the daughter of a
merchant, restored the images, then washed and worshipped them. The king could not
tolerate such defiance, of course, and had the girl dragged before him. He tried to have
her executed in several ways, but she seemed impossible to kill. Elephants would not
trample her,while the fire of her pyre would not burn her. Eventually the king, intrigued
by these events, asked the girl to perform a miracle. He stated that, if she was able to
make a Buddha image produce seven new images and then make all eight statues fly into
heaven, she would be set free. The girl spoke an act of truth, and the eight Buddha
statues flew up into the sky. The king was then converted to Buddhism and elevated the
girl to the position of chief queen.

Until now, archaeological finds of Mon ruins in Myanmar are meagre, but
at P'ong Tuk, in southern Thailand,[17] a Mon city, dating from the second half of the
first millennium AD, has been unearthed. Here, excavations have revealed the foundations
of several buildings. One contained the remains of a platform and fragments of columns
similar to the Buddhist vihara at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka; another, with a square
foundation of round stones, seems to have been a stupa. Statues of Indian origin from the
Gupta period (320-600 AD) were also found at the site. The Theravada Buddhist culture of
the Mon flourished in both Dvaravati and Thaton. However, the Mon civilisation in Thailand
did not survive the onslaught of the Khmer in the eleventh century who were worshipping
Hindu gods. In Myanmar, the Mon kingdom was conquered by Pagan. The Myanmar were eager to
accept the Mon culture and especially their religion, while the Khmer, as Hindus, at best
tolerated it.

The Pyu culture of this period is well documented because of
archaeological finds at Muanggan, a small village close to the ancient ruins of Hmawza.
There two perfectly preserved inscribed gold plates were found. These inscriptions reveal
three texts: the verses spoken by Assaji to Sariputta (ye dhamma hetuppabhava...), a list
of categories of the Abhidhamma (cattaro iddhipada, cattaro samappadhana...), and the
formula of worship of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha (iti pi so bhagava...). At the same site,
a book with twenty leaves of gold protected with golden covers, was discovered. It
contained texts such as the paticca-samuppada (dependent origination), the vipassana-nanas
(stages of insight knowledge), and various other excerpts from the Abhidhamma and the
other two baskets of the Buddhist scriptures. The scripts in all these documents are
identical to scripts used in parts of southern India, and can be dated from the third to
the sixth century AD.

In addition to these golden plates, a number of sculptures and reliefs
were found in Hmawza. They depict either the Buddha or scenes from his life, for example,
the birth of the Buddha and the taming of the wild elephant Nalagiri. The sculpture is
similar in style to that of Amaravati, a centre of Buddhist learning in South India. There
were also unearthed remains of Brahman temples and sites of Mahayana worship of east
Indian origin; hence it would appear that several faiths, of which the Theravada was the
strongest, co-existed in Sri Ksetra, the then capital of the Pyu. The script used by the
Pyu is indicative of major links with Buddhist kingdoms in South India rather than with
Sri Lanka. And it can be surmised that the bhikkhus of the Deccan and other regions of
southern India were the teachers of both the Mon and the Pyu in religious matters as well
as in the arts and sciences.

The inscriptions show how highly developed scholarship of the Pali
Buddhist texts must have been in Lower Myanmar even in these early days. Learning had gone
well beyond the basics into the world of Abhidhamma studies. Pali was obviously well known
as a language of learning, but unfortunately no original texts composed in Sri Ksetra or
Thaton have come down to us. Interestingly, some of the texts inscribed on these gold
plates are not identical to the same canonical texts as they are known today. Therefore,
the Tipitaka known to the Pyu must have been replaced by a version preserved in a country
that had no close contact with the Pyu. This could well have been Sri Lanka, as this
country came to play an important role in the history of Buddhism in Myanmar through the
friendship between the conqueror of Lower Myanmar, Anawratha, and the king who drove the
Hindus from Sri Lanka, Vijayabahu.

The finds on the site of the ancient Pyu capital confirm the reports of
the Chinese pilgrims and also the Tang imperial chronicles of China which state:
"They (the Pyu) dislike taking life. They know how to make astronomical calculations.
They are Buddhists and have a hundred monasteries, with brick of glass embellished with
gold and silver vermilion, gay colours and red kino.... At seven years of age the people
cut their hair and enter a monastery; if at the age of twenty they have not grasped the
doctrine they return to the lay state."[18]

Both Buddhist cultures in the south of Myanmar, the Mon and the Pyu,
were swept away in the eleventh century by armies of the Myanmar who had found a unifying
force in their leader, the founder of Pagan and champion of Buddhism, Anawratha.

3. Theravada Buddhism Comes to Pagan

The Beginnings of Pagan

Pagan is believed to have been founded in the years 849-850 AD, by the
Myanmar, who had already established themselves as rice growers in the region around
Kyauksai near Mandalay. Anawratha began to unite the region by subjugating one chieftain
after another and was successful in giving the Myanmar a sense of belonging to a larger
community, a nation. The crucial event in the history of Myanmar is not so much the
founding of the city of Pagan and the building of its walls and moat, but more Pagan's
acceptance of Theravada Buddhism in the eleventh century. The religion was brought to the
Myanmar by a Mon bhikkhu named Shin Arahan.

The religion prevailing among the Myanmar before and during the early
reign of Anawratha was some form of Mahayana Buddhism, which had probably found its way
into the region from the Pala kingdom in Bengal. This is apparent from bronze statues
depicting Bodhisattas and especially the "Lokanatha," a Bodhisatta believed, in
Bengal, to reign in the period between the demise of the Buddha Gotama and the advent of
the Buddha Metteyya. Anawratha continued to cast terracotta votive tablets with the image
of Lokanatha even after he embraced the Theravada doctrine.[19]

In India, Buddhism had split into numerous schools, some of which
differed fundamentally from the teachings of Pali Buddhism, which is also called Theravada
Buddhism (the doctrine of the Theras). The Ari, the monks or priests of this Mahayana
Buddhist form of worship, are described, in later chronicles of Myanmar, as the most
shameless bogus ascetics imaginable. They are said to have sold absolution from sin and to
have oppressed the people in various ways with their tyranny. Their tantric Buddhism
included, as an important element, the worship of Nagas (dragons), which was probably an
ancient indigenous tradition.

At this time, the beginning of the eleventh century, the Buddhist
religion among the Mon in Suvannabhumi was on the decline as people were disturbed by
robbers and raiders, by plagues, and by adversaries of the religion. These most probably
came from the Hindu Khmer kingdom in Cambodia and the north of Thailand. The Khmer were
endeavouring to add Thaton and the other Mon kingdoms of the south to their expanding
empire. Shin Arahan must have feared that bhikkhus would not be able to continue to
maintain their religious practice and the study of the scriptures under these
circumstances. He went, therefore, upcountry where a new, strong people were developing,
prosperous and secure from enemies.

It is interesting to note that in this same period, Buddhism was under
attack in other places as well. The Colas, a Hindu dynasty strongly opposed to Buddhism,
arose in southern India, one of the last strongholds of Theravada Buddhism. They were able
to expand their rule to include most of Sri Lanka between 1017 and 1070. The great Mon
city, Dvaravati, a Theravada centre in southern Thailand, fell to the Khmer, the masters
of the whole of Thailand, who were Shaivaite Hindus. In the north of India, Muslim armies
were trying to destroy what little was left of Buddhism there. "In this perilous
period," writes Professor Luce, "Buddhism was saved only by such valiant
fighters as Vijayabahu in Sri Lanka and Anawratha."[20]

Shin Arahan Converts the King

Shin Arahan arrived in the vicinity of Pagan and was discovered in his
forest dwelling by a hunter. The hunter, who had never before seen such a strange creature
with a shaven head and a yellow robe, thought he was some kind of spirit and took him to
the king, Anawratha. Shin Arahan naturally sat down on the throne, as it was the highest
seat, and the king thought: "This man is peaceful, in this man there is the essential
thing. He is sitting down on the best seat, surely he must be the best being." The
king asked the visitor to tell him where he came from and was told that he came from the
place where the Order lived and that the Buddha was his teacher. Then Shin Arahan gave the
king the teaching on mindfulness (appamada), teaching him the same doctrine Nigrodha had
given Emperor Asoka when he was converted. Shin Arahan then told the monarch that the
Buddha had passed into Parinibbana, but that his teaching, the Dhamma, enshrined in the
Tipitaka, and the twofold Sangha consisting of those who possessed absolute knowledge and
those who possessed conventional knowledge, remained.

The king must have felt that he had found what had been missing in his
life and a genuine alternative to the superficial teachings of the Ari monks. He built a
monastery for Shin Arahan, and according to some sources, stopped all worship of the Ari
monks. Tradition has it that he had them dressed in white and even forced them to serve as
soldiers in his army. The Ari tradition continued for a long time, however, and its
condemnation is a feature of much later times, and not, as far as contemporary evidence
shows, of the Pagan era.

The Sasanavamsa gives an alternate version of Anawratha's conversion
according to which Shin Arahan had originally come from Sri Lanka to study the Dhamma in
Dvaravati and Thaton and was on his way to Sri Ksetra in search of a text when he was
taken to Anawratha by a hunter. The king asked him, "Who are you?" -- "O
King, I am a disciple of Gotama." -- "Of what kind are the Three Jewels?"
-- "O King, the Buddha should be regarded as Mahosadha the wise, his doctrine as
Ummagga, his order as the Videhan army."[21]

This version is interesting in that Anawratha is portrayed as being a
Buddhist with knowledge of Jataka stories, such as the Mahosadha Jataka referred to above,
even before meeting Shin Arahan. This assumption that he was no stranger to Buddhism is
supported by the fact that earlier kings had been followers of Buddhism in varying
degrees. Caw Rahan, who died about 94 years before Anawratha's accession, is said to have
built a Sima and five Pagodas, and Kyaung Pyu Min built the white monastery outside Pagan.
Kyaung Pyu Min is believed to have been Anawratha's father.

Anawratha Acquires the Scriptures

Through Shin Arahan, Anawratha had now found the religion he had been
yearning for and he decided to set out and procure the scriptures and holy relics of this
religion. For he wished his kingdom to be secured on the original teachings of the Buddha.
He tried to find the scriptures and relics of his new religion in different quarters. In
his enthusiasm he did not limit his quest to Thaton, but also searched among the Khmer in
Angkor, and in Tali, the capital of the Nanchao, a kingdom in modern day Yunnan, in China,
where a tooth of the Buddha was enshrined. But everywhere he was refused. He then went to
Thaton, where his teacher Shin Arahan had come from, to request a copy of the scriptures.
According to the tradition of Myanmar, Anawratha's request was refused, and unable to
endure another refusal he set out with his army in the year 1057 to conquer Thaton and
acquire the Tipitaka by force. Before conquering Thaton, however, he had to subjugate Sri
Ksetra, the Pyu capital. From there, he took the relics enshrined in King Dwattabaung's
Bawbaw-gyi Pagoda to Pagan.

Some think that the aim of his campaign was mainly to add the
prosperous Indian colonies of Lower Myanmar to his possessions, while others think he may
have actually been called to Thaton to defend it against the marauding Khmer. Whatever the
immediate cause of his campaign in the lower country, we know for certain that he returned
with the king of Thaton and his court, with Mon artists and scholars and, above all, with
Thaton's bhikkhus and their holy books, the Tipitaka. Suvannabhumi and its Mon population
were now in the hands of the Myanmar and the Mon culture and religion were accepted and
assimilated in the emergent Pagan with fervour.

Initially the fervour must have been restricted to the king and
possibly his immediate entourage, yet even they continued to propitiate their traditional
gods for worldly gain as the new religion was considered a higher practice. Theravada
Buddhism does not provide much in the way of rites and rituals, but a royal court cannot
do without them. So the traditional propitiation of the Nagas continued to be used for
court ceremonials and remained part of the popular religion, while the bhikkhus were
accorded the greatest respect and their master, the Buddha Gotama, was honoured with the
erection of pagodas and shrines.

There were contacts between the new kings of Myanmar and Sri Lanka that
are recorded not only in the chronicles of the two countries but also in stone
inscriptions in South India.[22] As the Hindu Colas had ruled Sri Lanka for more than half
a century, Buddhism had been weakened and King Vijayabahu, who had driven out the
Vaishnavite Colas, wanted to re-establish his religion. So in 1070, he requested King
Anawratha of Myanmar, who had assisted him financially in his war against the Colas, to
send bhikkhus to re-introduce the pure ordination into his country.[23] It is interesting
to note that the Culavamsa refers to Anawratha as the king of Ramanna, which was Lower
Myanmar, also called Suvannabhumi. He was approached as the conqueror and master of
Thaton, a respected Theravada centre, rather than as the king of Pagan, a new and unknown
country. The bhikkhus who travelled to Sri Lanka brought the Sinhalese Tipitaka back with
them and established a link between the two countries which was to last for centuries.

Anawratha is mentioned in the Myanmar, Mon, Khmer, Thai, and Sinhalese
chronicles as a great champion of Buddhism because he developed Pagan into a major
regional power and laid the foundation for its glory. He did not, however, build many of
the temples for which Pagan is now so famous as the great age of temple building started
only after his reign. It is important to realize that his interest was not restricted only
to Pagan. He built pagodas wherever his campaigns took him and adorned them with
illustrations from the Jatakas and the life of the Buddha. Some maintain that he used only
Jatakas as themes for the adornment of his religious buildings because that was all he
possessed of the Tipitaka. Such a conclusion is negative and quite superficial. After all,
during Asoka's time Jatakas and scenes from the life of the Buddha were used for
illustrations in Bharut and Sanchi, the great stupas near Bombay. We cannot therefore
deduce that the builders of Bharut and Sanchi were acquainted only with the Jatakas. These
edifying stories which teach the fundamentals of Buddhism so skilfully are singularly
suited to educate an illiterate people beset by superstitions through the vivid visual
means of the stone reliefs depicting these stories. It is almost unthinkable that the Mon
Sangha, who taught Anawratha, had no knowledge of at least all of the Vinaya. Otherwise,
they would not have been able to re-establish a valid ordination of bhikkhus in Sri Lanka.

Anawratha left behind innumerable clay tablets adorned with images of
the Buddha, the king's name, and some Pali and Sanskrit verses. A typical aspiration on
these tablets was: "By me, King Anawratha, this mould of Sugata (Buddha) has been
made. Through this may I obtain the path to Nibbana when Metteyya is awakened."
Anawratha aspired to become a disciple of the Buddha Metteyya, unlike many later kings of
Myanmar who aspired to Buddhahood. Is this an indication that this warrior had remained a
modest man in spite of his empire building?

4. Pagan: Flowering and Decline

Anawratha was succeeded by a number of kings of varying significance to
Buddhism in Myanmar. His successors inherited a relatively stable and prosperous kingdom
and consequently were able to embark on the huge temple building projects for which their
reigns are still remembered.

This is the time when kings such as Kyanzitta and others built pagodas,
libraries, monasteries, and ordination halls. These kings must have possessed coffers full
of riches collected from their extensive kingdom which they lavished on the religion of
the Buddha. Their palaces were probably built of wood as was the last palace of the
Myanmar dynasty. Though the palaces must have reflected the wealth and power of the
rulers, the more durable brick was not deemed necessary for such worldly buildings. This
is similar to views still found in rural areas of Myanmar today. The only structure
adorned to any extent in a village is the monastery and the buildings attached to it, such
as the rest house. The villagers are very modest with regard to their private houses and
even consider it improper to decorate them. Their monastery, however, is given every
decoration affordable.

Kyanzitta Strengthens Theravada Buddhism

Kyanzitta (1084-1113), who had been Anawratha's commander-in-chief and
had succeeded Anawratha's son to the throne, consolidated Theravada Buddhism's
predominance in Pagan. In his reign, such important shrines as the Shwezigon Pagoda, the
Nanda, Nagayon, and Myinkaba Kubyauk-gyi temples were built.

With the three latter temples, Kyanzitta introduced a new style of
religious building. The traditional stupa or dagoba found in India and Sri Lanka is a
solid mound in which relics or other holy objects are enshrined. The area of worship is
situated around them and is usually marked by ornate stone railings. In the new style of
building, however, the solid mound had been hollowed out and could be entered. The central
shrine was surrounded by halls which housed stone reliefs depicting scenes from the
Buddha's life and Jataka stories. Kyanzitta's aim was the conversion of his people to the
new faith. Whereas Anawratha had been busy expanding his empire and bringing relics and
the holy scriptures to Pagan, Kyanzitta's mission was to consolidate this enterprise.
Enormous religious structures such as the Nanda Temple attracted the populace and the
interiors of the temples allowed the bhikkhus to instruct the inquisitive in the king's
faith.

Professor Luce writes:

The Nanda (temple) ... he built with four broad halls. Each hall had
the same 16 scenes in stone relief all identically arranged. The bhikkhus could cope with
four audiences simultaneously. The scenes cover the whole life of the Buddha. When well
grounded in these, the audience would pass to the outer wall of the corridor. Here,
running around the whole corridor are the 80 scenes of Gotama's life up to the
Enlightenment. The later life of the Buddha is shown in hundreds of other stone reliefs on
the inner walls and shrines.[24]

Kyanzitta's efforts for the advancement of Buddhism were not limited to
his own country. For in one of his many inscriptions, he also mentions that he sent
craftsmen to Bodhgaya to repair the Mahabodhi temple, which had been destroyed by a
foreign king. The upkeep of the Mahabodhi temple became a tradition with the kings of
Myanmar, who continued to send missions to Bodhgaya to repair the temple and also to
donate temple slaves and land to the holiest shrine of Buddhism.[25]

Kyanzitta also initiated an extensive review and purification of the
Tipitaka by the bhikkhus. This was the first occasion in Myanmar's history when the task
of a Buddhist Sangayana or Synod, comparing the Sinhalese and Suvannabhumi's Tipitaka, was
undertaken. It is possible and even probable that this huge editing work was carried out
along with visiting Sinhalese bhikkhus.

By nature of Myanmar's geographical position, external influences swept
in predominantly from northern India, and therefore tantric Buddhism, dominant especially
in Bengal, remained strong. However, Kyanzitta succeeded in firmly establishing the Pali
Tipitaka by asking the bhikkhus to compare the ancient Mon Tipitaka with the texts
obtained from the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka. In this way, he also made it clear that
confirmation of orthodoxy was to be sought in Sri Lanka and not in any other Buddhist
country. Though Mahayana practices were tolerated in his reign (his chief queen was a
tantric Buddhist), they were not officially regarded as the pure religion. It is
characteristic of Pagan that these two branches of Buddhism co-existed -- the religion of
the Theras, which was accepted as the highest religion -- and the tantric practices, which
included the worship of spirits or nats and gave more immediate satisfaction. Pagodas are
often adorned with figures of all types of deities, but the deities are normally shown in
an attitude of reverence towards the pagoda, a symbol of the Buddha. The ancient gods were
not banished, but had to submit to the peerless Buddha. Tradition attributes to King
Anawratha the observation: "Men will not come for the sake of the new faith. Let them
come for their old gods, and gradually they will be won over."

An approach such as this, whether it was Anawratha's or Kyanzitta's,
would suggest that the practice of the old religion of the Ari monks was allowed to
continue and that the conversion of the country was gentle and peaceful as befits the
religion of the Buddha. Although later Myanmar chronicles refer to the Ari monks as a
debased group of charlatans who were totally rooted out by Anawratha, this is far from the
truth. A powerful movement of "priests" who incorporated magic practices in
their teachings continued to exist throughout the Pagan period, and though they may have
respected the basic rules of the Vinaya and donned the yellow robe, their support was
rooted in the old animistic beliefs of the Myanmar.[26] It should not be forgotten that
the Myanmar first started to settle in the area of Kyauksai in the sixth century AD and
that the "man in the field" was in no way ready for such highly developed a
religion as Theravada Buddhism. The transition had to be gradual, and the process that
started remains still incomplete in the minds of many people, especially in the more
remote areas of the hill country.

The example of Kyanzitta's son Rajakumar, however, shows how even in
those early days the teachings of the Buddha were understood and practised not only by the
bhikkhus, but also by lay people and members of the royal court. Rajakumar's conduct is
proof of his father's ability to establish men in the Dhamma and survives as a monument
just as the Ananda temple does.

Rajakumar was Kyanzitta's only son and his rightful heir. Due to
political misadventures Kyanzitta was separated from his wife and therefore not aware of
the birth of his son for seven years. When his daughter gave birth to his grandson he
anointed him as future king immediately after his birth. Rajakumar grew up in the shadow
of his nephew, the crown prince, but neither during his father's reign nor after his death
did he ever try to usurp the throne through intrigue or by force. He was a minister
zealous in the affairs of state, prudent and wise. He was also a scholar of the Tipitaka
and instrumental in its review, vigorously supporting his father in his objective to
establish Buddhism. But he is best known for his devotion to his father in his last years
when his health was failing. In order to restore the king's health he built five pagodas
which to this day are called Min-o-Chanda, "The Welfare of the Old King." When
the king was on his deathbed:

Rajakumar, remembering the many and great favours with which the king
had nourished him, made a beautiful golden image of the Buddha and entering with ceremony
presented it to the king, saying: "This golden Buddha I have made to help my lord.
The three villages of slaves you gave me, I give to this Buddha." And the king
rejoiced and said "Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu." Then in the presence of the
compassionate Mahathera and other leading bhikkhus, the king poured on the ground the
water of dedication, calling the earth to witness. Then Rajakumar enshrined the golden
image, and built around it a cave temple with a golden pinnacle.[27]

Later Kings

Rajakumar's nephew was King Alaungsithu (c.1113-67), who continued the
tradition of his dynasty of glorifying the Buddha's religion by building a vast temple,
the Sabbannu Temple, probably the largest monument in Pagan. During his many travels and
campaigns, he built pagodas and temples throughout Myanmar. The faith that Shin Arahan had
inspired in Anawratha and his successors continued to inspire Alaungsithu. Shin Arahan,
who had seen kings come and go and the flowering of the religion he brought to Pagan, is
believed to have died during the reign of King Alaungsithu, in about 1115.

After the death of Alaungsithu, Pagan was thrown into turmoil by
violent struggles for the throne. Several kings reigned for short periods and spent most
of their time and resources in power struggles. One even succeeded in alienating the great
king of Sri Lanka, Parakramabahu, by mistreating his emissaries and breaking the
agreements between the two countries. Eventually Parakramabahu invaded Myanmar,
devastating towns and villages and killing the king. The new king, Narapati (1174-1210),
blessed the country with a period of peace and prosperity. This conducive atmosphere was
to allow outstanding scholarship and learning to arise in Pagan.

Kyawswa (1234-50) was a king under whom scholarship was encouraged even
more, undoubtedly because the king himself spent most of his time in scholarly pursuits
including memorising passages of the Tipitaka. He had relinquished most of his worldly
duties to his son in order to dedicate more time to the study of the scriptures. Two
grammatical works, the Saddabindu and the Paramatthabindu, are ascribed to him. It would
appear that his palace was a place of great culture and learning as his ministers and his
daughter are credited with scholarly works as well.

During the twelfth century, a sect of forest dwellers also thrived.
They were called arannaka in Pali and were identical with the previously mentioned Ari of
the later chroniclers of Myanmar.[28] This was a monastic movement that only used the
yellow robes and the respect due to them in order to follow their own ideas. They indulged
in business transactions and owned vast stretches of land. They gave feasts and indulged
in the consumption of liquor, and, though they pretended to be practising the teachings of
the Buddha, their practices were probably of a tantric nature. It would appear that they
had a considerable amount of influence at the royal court and one of the main exponents of
the movement was even given the title of royal teacher. Superstition and magic were
gaining dominance once again and Anawratha's and Kyanzitta's empire was slowly sliding
into decadence.

The last king of Pagan, Narathihapate, whom the Myanmar know by the
name Tayoupyemin[29] (the king who fled the Chinese), repeatedly refused to pay symbolic
tribute to the Mongol emperors in Peking who in 1271 had conquered neighbouring Yunnan. He
even went so far as to execute ambassadors of the Chinese emperor and their retinue for
their lack of deference to the king. He became so bold and blinded by ignorance that he
attacked a vassal state of the Mongols. The emperor in Peking was finally forced to send a
punitive expedition which defeated the Pagan army north of Pagan. The news of this defeat
caused the king and his court to flee to Pathein (Bassein). As the imperial court in
Peking was not interested in adding Pagan to its possessions, the Yunnan expedition did
not remain in the environs. When the king was later murdered and the whole empire fell
into disarray, the Yunnani generals returned, looting Pagan. The territories were divided
amongst Shan chiefs who paid tribute to the Mongols.

G.E. Harvey honours the kings of Pagan with the following words:

To them the world owes to a great measure the preservation of Theravada
Buddhism, one of the purest faiths mankind has ever known. Brahmanism had strangled it in
its land of birth; in Sri Lanka its existence was threatened again and again; east of
Burma it was not yet free from priestly corruptions; but the kings of Burma never wavered,
and at Pagan the stricken faith found a city of refuge.[30]

Contacts with Sri Lanka and the First Controversies

The contact with Sri Lanka was very important for the growth of the
religion in Pagan. As was shown previously, it started with the friendship of Anawratha
and Vijayabahu, both of whom fought for Buddhism: Anawratha to establish a new kingdom,
Vijayabahu to wrench an old one from the clutches of the Hindu invaders. They supported
each other in their struggles and then together re-established the Theravada doctrine in
their respective countries, Anawratha sending bhikkhus to Sri Lanka to revive the Sangha,
while Vijayabahu reciprocated by sending the sacred texts. The continued contact between
the two countries was beneficial to both: many a reform movement, purifying the religion
in one country spread to the other as well. Bhikkhus visiting from one country were led to
look at their own traditions critically and to reappraise their practice of the Dhamma as
preserved in the Pali texts. After the fall of the main Buddhist centres in southern
India, centres which had been the main allies of the Mon Theravadins in the south, Sri
Lanka was the only ally in the struggle for the survival of the Theravada tradition.

Leading bhikkhus of Pagan undertook the long and difficult journey to
Sri Lanka in order to visit the holy temples and study the scriptures as they had been
preserved by the Sinhalese Sangha. Shin Arahan's successor as the king's teacher left the
royal court for Sri Lanka, returning to Pagan only to die. He was succeeded by a Mon
bhikkhu, Uttarajiva, who led a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka in 1171. This was to cause the
first upheaval in the Sangha of Pagan.

Uttarajiva travelled to Sri Lanka accompanied by Chapada, a novice who
remained behind on the island in order to study the scriptures in the Mahavihara, the
orthodox monastery of Sri Lanka and the guardian of the Theravada tradition. After ten
years, he returned to Pagan accompanied by four elders who had studied with him. The
Kalyani inscription, written about three hundred years later, relates that Chapada
considered the tradition of the Myanmar bhikkhus impure. He had consequently taken four
bhikkhus with him because he needed a chapter of at least five theras in order to ordain
new bhikkhus. It is possible that the Myanmar bhikkhus, who seemed to have formed a group
separate from the Mon bhikkhus, had paid more attention to their traditional worship than
was beneficial for their practice of the Dhamma. It is also possible that there was an
element of nationalist rivalry between the Mon bhikkhus and the Myanmar bhikkhus. As he
showed a penchant for the reform movement, the Myanmar king Narapati seems to have
accepted the superiority of the Mon bhikkhus, though he did not neglect the other
bhikkhus. Chapada and his companions refused to accept the ordination of the Myanmar
bhikkhus as legitimate in accordance with Vinaya. They established their own ordination,
following which the Myanmar bhikkhus sent a delegation to Sri Lanka to receive the
Mahavihara ordination for themselves.

After Chapada's death, the reform movement soon split into two
factions, and eventually each of the four remaining bhikkhus went his own way, one of them
leaving the order altogether. "Thus in the town of Arimaddana (Pagan) there were four
schools.... Because the first of these to come was the school of the Elder Arahan from
Sudhamma (Thaton) it was called the first school; while the others, because they came
later, were called the later schools."[31]

Scholarship in Pagan

It is surprising how quickly a relatively simple people absorbed the
great civilisation that arrived in their midst so suddenly. Even before the conquest of
Thaton, Pagan possessed some ornate religious buildings, which is indicative of the
presence of artists and craftsmen. It is quite likely, however, that these were Indians
from Bengal and the neighbouring states. The type of Buddhism that had come to Pagan from
India was an esoteric religion, as some old legends indicate. It was the jealously guarded
domain of a group of priests, who made no attempt to instruct the people but were happy if
their superiority remained unquestioned by a superstitious populace.

The advent of Theravada Buddhism with its openness and its aim to
spread understanding must have been quite revolutionary in Pagan and obviously the people
were eager to acquire the knowledge offered to them by the bhikkhus. Mabel Bode says in
her Pali Literature of Burma:

Though the Burmese began their literary history by borrowing from their
conquered neighbours, the Talaings (Mon) -- and not before the eleventh century -- the
growth of Pali scholarship among them was so rapid that the epoch following close on this
tardy beginning is considered one of the best that Burma has seen.[32]

The principal works of the Pagan period still extant are Pali grammars.
The most famous of these is the Saddaniti, which Aggavamsa completed in 1154. Uttarajiva
gave a copy of this work to the bhikkhus of the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka and it "was
received with enthusiastic admiration, and declared superior to any work of the kind
written by Sinhalese scholars." The Saddaniti is still used to teach grammar in the
monasteries in Myanmar and has been printed many times. B.C. Law regards it as one of the
three principal Pali grammars along with the grammars by Kaccayana and Moggallana. K.R.
Norman says: "The greatest of extant Pali grammars is the Saddaniti, written by
Aggavamsa from Arimaddana [Pagan] in Burma...."[33] Aggavamsa was also known as the
teacher of King Narapatisithu (1167-1202) and was given the title Aggapandita.
Unfortunately, no other works by this author are known today.

The second famous author of Pagan was Saddhammajotipala who has been
previously mentioned under his clan name of Chapada. He was a disciple of Uttarajiva and
is credited with a great number of works, but in the case of some it is doubtful whether
he actually composed them himself or merely introduced them from Sri Lanka.[34] His works
deal not only with grammar, but also with questions of monastic discipline (Vinaya) and
the Abhidhamma, which in later centuries was to become a favourite subject of Myanmar
scholars. His work on Kaccayana's grammar, the Suttaniddesa, formed the foundation of his
fame. However, his specialty would appear to have been the study of Abhidhamma, as no less
than four noted works of his on the subject attained fame: Samkhepavannana,
Namacaradipani, Matikatthadipani, and Patthanagananaya. According to the Pitaka-thamain, a
history of Buddhism in Myanmar, he also devoted a commentary to the Visuddhimagga by
Buddhaghosa called the Visuddhimagga-ganthi.[35] There are no written records that refer
to meditation being practised in Myanmar before this century. However, his interest in the
Visuddhimagga is indicative of an interest in meditation, if only in the theory rather
than in the practice.

Another scholar of Pagan, Vimalabuddhi, also wrote a commentary
concerning Abhidhamma, the Abhidhammatthasangahatika, in addition to another important
grammatical work, the Nyasa, a commentary on Kaccayana's grammar.

Other grammatical works of some importance were written, but none
acquired the standing of Aggavamsa's Saddaniti. However, a rather peculiar work worth
mentioning is the Ekakkharakosa by Saddhammakitti. It is a work on Pali lexicography
enumerating words of one letter.

5. Shan Rule

Upper Myanmar

After Narathihapate had fled Pagan in fear of the Mongol army, he was
never able to re-establish his authority, even though the Mongols supported the Pagan
dynasty. The Mongol court in Peking preferred a united neighbouring country under a single
ruler, but in spite of its efforts Myanmar was divided into several principalities mainly
under Shan tribal leaders. These self-styled princelings paid tribute to the Chinese
Mongol court and were nominally its subjects. The Shan, at this time still nomadic tribes
in the north, broke into an already destabilized Myanmar like a tidal wave. They
penetrated the entire region as far as the Mon country and established themselves as
rulers in many towns and cities. The intrigues, fratricidal wars, and murders that make up
the history of their courts are innumerable.

A division of the country into Upper and Lower Myanmar is somewhat
arbitrary, as, after the fall of Pagan, the two regions were composed of many competing
principalities. However, there were the two principle kingdoms of Ava in Upper Myanmar and
Pago (Pegu) in Lower Myanmar. Hostilities between these two prevailed, as well as with the
neighbouring smaller states including the Shan fiefs of Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya in
Thailand. Intrigues within and between courts were rife. Sometimes these claimed victims
only within the circle of the powerful and mighty, and sometimes whole towns were looted
and destroyed, and their population massacred or carried off into slavery. But, in spite
of politically unsettled conditions, the Sangha survived, because the new rulers,
initially somewhat barbaric, soon accepted the religion of their subjects. Just as the
Myanmar had adopted the religion and culture of the more refined Mon, so the Shan
submitted to the sophisticated civilisation of the peoples they subjugated. The Shan
initially established their capital at Pinya in Upper Myanmar to the north of Pagan and
transferred it to Ava in 1312. Ava was to remain the capital of Upper Myanmar until the
eighteenth century.

The Sasanavamsa praises Thihathu, the youngest of three Shan brothers
who wrested power from the Pagan dynasty in Upper Myanmar, as a Buddhist king who built
monasteries and pagodas. He had a bhikkhu as his teacher and supported thousands of
bhikkhus in his capital Pinya and later Ava. However, Pagan remained the cultural and
religious capital of the region for the whole of the fourteenth century. Scholarly works
were composed in its monasteries throughout this period whereas no such works are known to
have been written in the new centres of power. The works of this period of scholarship
were mostly concerned with Pali grammar.

Two generations later, a descendant of Thihathu secured himself a place
in religious history as a great patron of scholarship. As in the courts of some previous
kings, his court was also devoted to scholarly learning; and not only bhikkhus, but also
the palace officials, produced treatises on religious subjects and the Pali language.

Although the political situation remained unsettled in Upper Myanmar
throughout the fifteenth century, in the main, this affected only those in power and their
usurpers. Consequently the Sangha appears to have flourished, while the traditional
devotion to the support of the Sangha through gifts of the four requisites remained
unchanged. The royal court, followed by the leading families, made great donations of
monasteries, land, and revenue to the bhikkhus.

In approximately 1440, two Mahatheras from Sri Lanka settled in
Ava.[36] Here they joined a group of famous scholars, of whom Ariyavamsa was the most
outstanding. The Sasanavamsa tells us of his great wisdom and humility in an anecdote.[37]

The elder Ariyavamsa had studied the books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka,
but felt he had not gained real understanding. Eventually he came to a bhikkhu in Sagaing
who kept his mouth always filled with water in order not to have to engage in meaningless
chatter. Ariyavamsa did not talk to "the Elder Water-bearer," as this bhikkhu
was known in the Myanmar language, but simply performed the duties of a disciple to his
teacher for two days. On the third day, the Venerable Water-bearer spat out the water and
asked Ariyavamsa why he was serving him. When Ariyavamsa told him that he wanted to learn
from him, the Venerable Water-bearer taught him the Abhidhammattha-vibhavani-tika, a
subcommentary on the Abhidhammattha-sangaha. After two days, Ariyavamsa grasped the
meaning and his teacher asked him to write a commentary on this book in order to help
others to gain understanding.

During the composition of his first work, Ariyavamsa submitted his
writings to the assembled bhikkhus on every Uposatha day, reading out what he had composed
and asking his brethren to correct any mistakes they found. On one occasion, a visiting
bhikkhu twice made a sound of disapproval during the reading. Ariyavamsa carefully noted
the passages where the sound of disapproval had occurred. On reflecting on them in the
evening, he found one error of grammar where he had used the wrong gender and also a
repetition, an error of style. He approached the bhikkhu who had made the sounds during
the reading and out of gratitude for the correction gave him his own outer robe.

Ariyavamsa composed several works in Pali: works on the Abhidhamma, on
grammatical subjects, and a study of the Jatakas. But his very important contribution to
Buddhism in Myanmar was the fact that all his writing was in the Myanmar vernacular. He
was probably the first bhikkhu to write treatises on religious subjects in the local
idiom, thus making the religion accessible to a greater number of people. The work by
Ariyavamsa still known today is a commentary on the anutika (sub-commentary) of the
Abhidhamma.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, a bhikkhu by the name of
Silavamsa composed several epic poems in Pali. They were, of course, of a religious nature
dealing with subjects such as the life of the Buddha, or Jataka stories. This genre was
later very popular in the Myanmar language and there are many poems relating Jataka
stories which were sung by bards throughout the country until recently. In the
Sasanavamsa, however, Pannasami disapproves of bhikkhus writing or reciting poetry as he
considers it to be in breach of the Vinaya rules. He says that because of this,
Silavamsa's name was excluded from the Theraparampara, a listing of eminent bhikkhus of
Myanmar by ancient chroniclers.

Lower Myanmar

The Mon civilization in Lower Myanmar flourished after Pagan's
importance waned, once again reliving the era of glory that it had experienced prior to
Anawratha's conquest.

Wareru, the Shan ruler who had established himself in Martaban in 1287,
was soon converted to Buddhism. He was a Shan peddler who had astutely wrested power from
a son of the last king of Pagan, a son who had revolted against his father and founded an
independent kingdom. Under Wareru's rule, scholarship in the Mon monasteries flourished
and a code of law was compiled which still forms the foundation of the legal literature of
Myanmar. The Mon bhikkhus based this code on ancient Hindu codes of law which had found
their way into Mon tradition through Indian colonisers and merchants.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century two respected Mon theras
named Buddhavamsa and Mahanaga revived the tradition of their countryman Chapada in making
a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka. There, they accepted new ordination in the Mahavihara
monastery, the guardian of Sinhalese orthodoxy. The bhikkhus of the Mahavihara asked those
ordained in other countries to revert to the lay-state before being re-ordained as novices
and full bhikkhus, as it was considered of the utmost importance that the ordination be
handed down in an unbroken tradition from the time of the Buddha. This was especially
significant in Myanmar where there were some reservations about the continuity of the
tradition. By disrobing, a bhikkhu forgoes the seniority he has acquired through the years
spent in robes and, in this case, he also states that he considers his former ordination
invalid. One can imagine that such a step is not taken lightly but only after careful
consideration.

The Great Reformation of the Sangha

King Dhammazedi (1472-92) takes a special place in the history of the
religion in Myanmar. He unified the Sangha in the Mon country and purified the order of
the bhikkhus. He recorded his great service to the country in the Kalyani inscription,
which will be quoted below.

Dhammazedi was a bhikkhu of Mon origin who taught one of the queens at
the royal palace in Ava. This lady, Shin Sawbu, was the daughter of the king of Pago. She
had been queen to several unfortunate kings of Upper Mynamar and had beeen conveyed into
the hands of the subsequent kings along with the throne. She had become disenchanted with
the life of a queen and desired to return to her native land. Dhammazedi and a fellow Mon
bhikkhu helped her to escape and brought her back to Pago. Eventually she became queen of
Pago , but after reigning only a few years she wished to retire and do works of merit. She
found that the only people worthy of the throne of Pago were her teachers, the two
bhikkhus. She let fate decide which would be the future king by concealing miniature
imitations of the regalia in one of the two bowls in which she offered them their daily
alms food.

She handed the throne over to Dhammazedi who had received the fateful
bowl and spent the rest of her life at Dagon (Yangon) building the terrace around the
Shwedagon Pagoda and gilding the sacred mound. The Shwedagon became what it is today
chiefly thanks to Shin Sawbu's munificence.

Dhammazedi assumed government in Pago after leaving the Order of the
bhikkhus. He moved the capital closer to the Swemawdaw Pagoda and built several pagodas
and shrines. His name is also connected with a collection of wise judgements and the
translation of Wareru's Code of Law into the vernacular. In 1472, Dhammazedi sent a
mission to Bodhgaya to repair the temple and make plans and drawings of it.

Dhammazedi had received his education in monasteries of Ava which
adhered to the Sihala Sangha. The Sihala Sangha was the faction of the Sangha of Myanmar
that accepted only the Mahavihara of Sri Lanka as the ultimate authority in religious
questions. King Dhammazedi knew from direct experience the state of the Sangha in Lower
Myanmar and was determined to improve it. Having lived as a bhikkhu for so many years, he
was also singularly qualified to change the Sangha for the better.

He chose twenty-two senior bhikkhus to lead the reform movement and
informed them:

Reverend Sirs, the upasampada ordination of the bhikkhus of the Mon
country now appears to us to be invalid. Therefore, how can the religion, which is based
on such invalid ordination, last to the end of 5000 years? Reverend Sirs, from the
establishment of the religion in the island of Sri Lanka up to this present day, there has
been existing in this island an exceedingly pure sect of bhikkhus.... Receive at their
hands the upasampada ordination ... and if you make this form of the upasampada ordination
the seed of the religion, as it were, plant it, and cause it to sprout forth by conferring
such ordination on men of good family in this Mon country.... Reverend Sirs, by your going
to the island of Sri Lanka, much merit and great advantage will accrue to you.[38]

At the beginning of 1476 the chosen bhikkhus with their twenty-two
disciples embarked on the journey to Sri Lanka. They sailed in two ships, one taking about
two months while the other needed six full months to arrive on the shore of the Buddhist
island. They received the upasampada ordination at the Mahavihara from 17th to 20th July
1476. The return journey of the forty-four Mon bhikkhus was not so smooth, however. One
group arrived home in August 1476, while the other group took three years to return to
Pago and ten of the bhikkhus died en route. Following their return, Dhammazedi had a pure
ordination hall(sima) consecrated and made the following proclamation:

May all those who possess faith and desire to receive the bhikkhu's
ordination at the hands of the bhikkhus ordained in Sri Lanka come to the Kalyani sima and
receive ordination. Let those who have not faith and do not desire to receive the bhikkhus
ordination of the Sinhalese, remain as they are.[39]

In order to confer the bhikkhu ordination outside the middle country
(i.e. northern India), a chapter of five bhikkhus is needed, one of whom must be qualified
to serve as preceptor (upajjhaya) and another as teacher (acariya). The latter two must
have spent at least ten years in robes as fully ordained bhikkhus. So if Dhammazedi wanted
to have local bhikkhus ordained in the new ordination, it was necessary to find two senior
bhikkhus. Since those returning from Sri Lanka had been ordained for a period of only
three years, they could not act as preceptor or teacher. Local bhikkhus who had not
received the ordination of the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka were unacceptable, as otherwise the
ordination would again have been invalidated by one who was not of pure descent.
Fortunately, the two theras who had undertaken a pilgrimage to Sri Lanka at the beginning
of the century and had received the Sinhalese ordination at that time, were still alive.
As a result, one was able to act as preceptor and the other as teacher of the newly
ordained bhikkhus. The stage was now set for the reformation and unification of the Mon
Order of bhikkhus and soon the re-ordination of almost the entire Order of bhikkhus began.
The Kalyani inscription records the number of 15,666 ordinations in hundreds of ordination
halls newly constructed for the purpose.

It is interesting to note how forcefully the king reformed the Order
through royal decrees that would hardly be tolerated today. He declared that all bhikkhus
who were, for example, practising medicine or other arts and crafts or who even slightly
infringed on the Vinaya rules would be expelled. The king as a layman, however, did not
have the power to defrock a bhikkhu who had not broken one of the four Parajika rules.[40]
Dhammazedi circumvented this by threatening to punish with royal penalties the mother,
father, relatives, and lay supporters of bhikkhus whose behaviour was not in accordance
with the rules of the Vinaya.

It goes without saying that a king who could allow himself to take such
drastic measures in regard to the Sangha must have had the support of a broad section of
the Order and also the people. After years spent in robes, he was keenly aware of the
problems of monastic life and because of this even senior bhikkhus respected and accepted
his council. We can assume that all his actions to reform the Order were firstly discussed
with his bhikkhu teachers and then implemented with their blessings. There being no such
thing as a Buddhist Church with a central authority, the Sangha has little possibility to
regulate itself. Only the committed support of a worldly power can protect the Order of
bhikkhus from those who take advantage of the respect that is given to the yellow robe.

Dhammazedi's support for the religion was so great that his fame spread
well beyond the borders of Myanmar and bhikkhus from neighbouring countries such as
Thailand came to his realm to receive ordination there. Though the reform movement did not
spread to Upper Myanmar and cause the same mass ordinations there, it did not remain
without influence in the kingdom of Ava and other principalities, and many bhikkhus came
to the Mon bhikkhus to receive the Kalyani ordination.[41]

6. The Myanmar Build an Empire

Shan versus Myanmar

The beginning of the sixteenth century was one of the most difficult
periods for Buddhism in Upper Myanmar. While the religious fervour of Dhammazedi still
lived on in the kingdom of Pago in Ava, Shan rulers were endeavouring to bring about the
destruction of the Sangha. A Shan king named Thohanbwa (?1527-1543) was particularly
well-known for his barbarity. He destroyed pagodas and monasteries and robbed their
treasures. Although he was a king, he was uneducated and ignorant. Hence fearing the
influence of the bhikkhus and suspicious of their moves, he brought about the massacre of
thousands. Under these terror regimes of the Shan rulers the Myanmar did not feel safe.
Many, including learned bhikkhus, fled to Toungoo, the stronghold of the Myanmar race in
the south. Despite the anarchy prevailing, some respected treatises on Pali grammar were
written in Upper Myanmar in these years.

Better times, however, lay ahead for Buddhism in the Golden Land. Two
successive kings of Myanmar origin from Toungoo would unite the country and fulfil the
duties of Buddhist kings. The wars fought by these two kings, King Tabinshwehti (1531-50)
and King Bayinnaung (1551-81), were long in duration and exceedingly cruel. They succeeded
in gaining control of the Mon kingdom in Lower Myanmar and the kingdom of Ava. They
conquered all of what is today Myanmar including the Shan states as far east as Chiang
Mai, and made incursions into lower Thailand and Yunnan where some kings paid tribute to
the Myanmar court.

Bayinnaung deferred to the Mon as far as culture and religion were
concerned and dressed in Mon style. Under his royal patronage, the Mon Sangha produced
scholarly works on grammar and the Abhidhamma and also helped with the collection and
standardisation of a code of law based on the old Mon code compiled during Wareru's reign.

Bayinnaung not only unified the country politically, but also made
Buddhist principles the standard for his entire dominion. He forbade the sacrificial
slaughter of animals, a custom still practised by the Shan chiefs, the worshippers of
certain spirits, and the followers of some other religions. He built pagodas and
monasteries in all the newly conquered lands and installed learned bhikkhus in order to
convert the often uncivilised inhabitants to gentler ways. The main religious building of
his reign is the Mahazedi Pagoda, a majestic monument to the Buddha in the capital, Pago.
He also crowned the main pagodas in Myanmar with the jewels of his own crown, a custom
practised by many rulers of the country. He continued in the tradition of Dhammazedi, in
supporting the Sihala Sangha and in sponsoring the ordination of many bhikkhus in the
Kalyani Ordination Hall near Pago. It is said that he built as many monasteries as there
were years in his life.

It remains a mystery how a king who had such deep devotion to the
religion of the Buddha and who was so generous towards it could spend his life fighting
campaign after campaign to expand his realm. He caused bloodshed and suffering in the
conquered regions and at home people starved because farmers were drafted into the army.
However this may be, Bayinnaung seems to have been able to reconcile fighting expansionist
wars with being a pious Buddhist.

After King Bayinnaung, Pago rapidly lost its significance. Bayinnaung's
son persecuted the Mon and consequently re-ignited racial tensions that would plague
Myanmar for centuries. Later, Pago was to fall into the hands of a Portuguese adventurer
who pillaged the pagodas and monasteries. Eventually the whole of Lower Myanmar, already
depopulated by the incessant campaigns of Bayinnaung and his successors, was pillaged by
all the surrounding kings and princelings. The country was devastated and people starved.

The Sasanavamsa records one major problem of the Vinaya during the
sixteenth century. At the beginning of the century, the bhikkhus of Toungoo were divided
over whether or not bhikkhus could partake of the juice of the toddy palm which was
generally used to prepare fermented drink. The dispute was settled by a respected thera
who decided that toddy juice was permissible only if it was freshly harvested.

Political Influence of the Sangha in Early Myanmar

What motivated the royal court probably remained largely a mystery to
the ordinary citizens, except when they were pressed into service in the king's army.
There was little sense of collective responsibility as it is cultivated in today's
democracies. Everyone looked after himself and his immediate circle and governments were
sometimes more of a scourge than a protection. Kings did not always provide a visible
administration beyond appointing governors at whose mercy local people were. These
governors often endeavoured to establish independence as soon as they perceived inherent
weaknesses in their masters. Many accumulated great wealth for themselves.

There was, however, one element in the policy of rulers which, with a
few exceptions, remained fairly stable throughout Myanmar history. Most kings supported
Buddhism and the Sangha provided a framework of continuity as no other entity could. Ray
writes:

They (the kings) were good Buddhists and never did they waver from
their kingly duty of acting as the patron-guardian of the faith of the country. Moreover,
whatever their numerical strength, the bhikkhus were real spokesmen of the people and the
monasteries were the popular assemblies as it were; and each king that came to the throne
sought to win the bhikkhus over to his side.[42]

The best insurance of a peaceful life in Myanmar was to become a
bhikkhu, as they were not drafted into armies or enslaved by conquerors and as long as the
lay people had food to eat they were also fed. The bhikkhus not only provided a link
between the people and those in power, they often played a role in the affairs of state.
This is illustrated by an event which occurred in the middle of the seventeenth century
and is related by the Sasanavamsa.

The king, Ukkamsika, popularly known as King Thalun, was a devoted
Buddhist and thanks to him, learning flourished in Myanmar. The king's son, however, tried
to dethrone his father, and Thalun, taken by surprise, had to flee accompanied only by two
companions. Coming upon a river, the only vessel in sight was the boat of a samanera. The
samanera agreed to take them onboard as passengers, and they ended up in the samanera's
monastery where they revealed their true identities and asked for protection from their
persecutors. They were referred to another monastery where lived a bhikkhu wise in worldly
affairs. Following his advice, the bhikkhus formed a living wall around the monastery and,
as no Buddhist will attack a man in robes, the rebels who had come to kill the king had to
withdraw. Another example of the beneficial influence of the Sangha is their appeal for
clemency to King Bayinnaung. Bhikkhus often tried to stay executions in accordance with
the principles of metta (loving kindness) and karuna (compassion) and sometimes their
efforts achieved success.

During one of Bayinnaung's Thai campaigns, the peasantry around Pago
revolted and razed the royal city to the ground. Bayinnaung, after hurrying back from
Ayutthaya, captured several thousand rebels and was ready to burn them alive. It was the
custom then to burn deserters from the army alive and obviously rebellion was considered
to be a crime of similar gravity. The bhikkhus of all races intervened on behalf of the
poor wretches and were able to save all from the pyre, except for seventy ring leaders,
the most serious offenders.

There are several instances in Myanmar history when bhikkhus also
mediated between contending kings or princes and helped to avoid bloodshed. This was often
the case when cities were besieged and both parties realised that they could not win. The
king who was besieged would normally take the initiative and send his bhikkhus to the king
in attack. Often the bhikkhus were authorised to negotiate on behalf of the monarch. An
armistice agreed by or in the presence of bhikkhus was more likely to be honoured than a
promise given without their blessings. Therefore, if the two parties were sincere in their
offers to negotiate, they usually requested bhikkhus to be mediators and judges.

The Spread of Abhidhamma

The seventeenth century was a period of dynamic growth in the history
of Buddhism in Myanmar. Many outstanding developments took place, and principal among
these were the numerous translations of texts into the Myanmar language and the great
increase in the study of the Abhidhamma. It is quite possible that the two developments
were inter-connected.

In the first half of the century, Manirathana Thera translated the
following texts into the Myanmar language: Atthasalini, Sammohavinodani, Kankhavitarani,
Abhidhammatthavibhavini, Sankhepavannana. Of these five, only the Kankhavitarani,
Buddhaghosa's commentary on the Patimokkha, is not concerned with Abhidhamma. In the
second half of the century Aggadhammalankara translated Kaccayana's Pali grammar, the
Abhidhammatthasangaha, Matika, Dhatukatha, Yamaka, and the Patthana into the Myanmar
tongue. Later, the Nettippakarana was also translated.

It cannot be a coincidence that nine out of twelve translated works
were texts of the Abhidhamma or its commentaries. The reason for these translations must
have been a developing interest in the psychology of Buddhism among the Buddhist followers
who could not themselves read Pali. Whether these were only bhikkhus or whether lay people
were also interested in exploring the scriptures for themselves is difficult to determine
now. However, what is known is that almost every boy and many of the girls attended
monastic schools, whose curriculum was probably established by this period, if not
earlier. Included in the curriculum were studies of the Mangala Sutta, Metta Sutta, Ratana
Sutta, and the other parittas, as well as basic literacy which included some Pali. In
addition a number of the Abhidhamma texts had to be committed to memory.

The intention behind these translations and commentaries in the Myanmar
language was obviously to make the words of the Buddha accessible to a wider audience who
would, then, not be solely dependent on the authority of the Pali scholars.

In the later half of the century, the bhikkhu Devacakkhobhasa designed
a system for the study and teaching of the Patthana, the last book of the Abhidhamma,
which in Myanmar is believed to be the highest teaching of the Buddha. The king at the
time of Devacakkhobhasa was so impressed by the bhikkhu's proficiency in these higher
teachings and by his system of instruction, that he ordered the Patthana to be studied in
all the monasteries of Myanmar. It is not unreasonable to assume that the king himself
studied these teachings. Otherwise he would hardly have been in a position to appreciate
them and make them compulsory reading for the Myanmar bhikkhus.

This emphasis on Abhidhamma in general and the Patthana in particular
has survived in Myanmar to the present day. The movement, therefore, that began in the
seventeenth century is still of great significance for Buddhism there. The Patthana, for
instance, is ubiquitous in Myanmar. The twenty-four conditions of the Patthana can be
found printed on the fans of the bhikkhus, on calendars, and on posters. In some
monasteries, the bhikkhus are woken every morning by twenty-four strokes on a hollow tree
trunk, while the bhikkhu striking the tree trunk has to recite the twenty-four conditions
as he does so. Even little children learn to recite the twenty-four conditions along with
the suttas of protection. As the Patthana is the highest and most difficult teaching of
the Buddha, it is believed that it will be the first to be lost. In order to slow the
decline of the Sasana, many people of Myanmar, bhikkhus and lay people alike, memorize the
Patthana and recite it daily.

In Pagan, the Jataka stories and the history of the Buddha's life were
the main subjects of religious study. In later centuries, Pali grammar and the study of
the Vinaya were foremost on the agenda. Dhammazedi's reform movement drew the attention
back to the foundations of all monastic life, the code of conduct for the bhikkhus as laid
down by the Buddha himself.

Though stricter observation of the Vinaya would have to be
re-emphasised in the future, its foundation was firm enough to insure that progressive
reform movements would be instigated within the Sangha and not be dependent on external
impetus. How far a bhikkhu was allowed to stray from the ideal had been defined in
strictures that had become integral to the Sangha. Based on this foundation of sila (right
conduct, morality), the Sangha was now free to give increased attention to higher
teachings.

The age of the Abhidhamma had dawned. The Abhidhamma remained no longer
the domain of a chosen few, but began to be studied by many. The wealth of translations
from the Abhidhamma would suggest that in the seventeenth century it had become so popular
that it may have been taught even to lay people. The Myanmar language had developed and
had been enriched with Pali terms so that it could convey the difficult concepts of
Abhidhamma. Civilisation had matured to an extent never seen before. Myanmar was ready to
study the analysis of mind and matter as taught by the Buddha. The stage was being set for
the widespread practice of insight meditation (vipassana bhavana) in later times.

7. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

In the succession of rulers of the eighteenth century some were strong
and despotic, while others were ineffective and withdrawn. Some tried to expand their
power and fought wars, while others appeared satisfied with existing conditions. There
were several wars with Thailand and the population of Myanmar had to bear the deprivations
that war invariably brings not only to the conquered, but also to the country where the
conquering armies are levied.

After a war between the Mon and the Myanmar in which the Mon initially
attacked and then conquered Ava itself, the Myanmar king Alaungpaya (1752-60), who
believed himself a Bodhisatta, crushed Mon resistance once and for all. After Pago had
fallen into his hands in 1756, Lower Myanmar was devastated and many of the Mon survivors
fled to Thailand or were deported as slaves.

Like Bayinnaung, Alaungpaya established a Myanmar empire, at the same
time decimating the population of the country by drafting the peasantry into the army for
campaigns against Ayutthaya (Thailand) and other countries. The Sasanavamsa does not
comment on the atrocity of war. War is perceived as it is, cruel and pitiless -- but it is
the affair of rulers, not of bhikkhus. The manner in which rulers conduct their affairs is
entirely their responsibility. Pannasami probably took very seriously the Buddha's
injunction that a member of the Sangha should not talk about rulers and royal affairs.

The Sasanavamsa pays much attention to a controversy which raged in
monastic circles throughout the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the century, some
bhikkhus began to wear their robes outside the monasteries as they were worn within them,
that is, covering only one shoulder. Even when going on their daily alms round, they
failed to drape the robe in the traditional way. When challenged as to the orthodoxy of
this practice, they produced various interpretations and opinions, but could not validate
their practice through the authority of the scriptures. Different kings endorsed one or
other of the two opinions and bhikkhus of the orthodox school even died for their
conviction when a king had outlawed the covering of both shoulders.

The most interesting aspect of this historical period of the religion
is not so much the actual controversy as the power the king had in religious affairs. The
kings of Myanmar were not normally expert in the Vinaya and yet they took the final
decision in matters of monastic discipline after due consultation with the leaders of the
Sangha. In the more than one hundred years that this controversy prevailed, different
kings supported the orthodoxy of either view. This shows that this system is not entirely
satisfactory. However, the right view which was in accordance with the Vinaya did
eventually triumph due to the persistence of the majority of the Sangha. Only the worldly
power was in a position to regulate the Sangha into which undesirable elements entered
repeatedly. To keep the Order pure, it had to be always under careful scrutiny and bogus
ascetics had to be removed. The kings of Myanmar in co-operation with the Sangharajas[43]
and the other senior bhikkhus had established a system of supervision of the bhikkhus by
royal officials. In every township, the king's representatives were responsible for
ensuring that the bhikkhus adhered scrupulously to the rules of the Vinaya. Bhikkhus who
transgressed were taken before religious courts and punished according to the code of
discipline.

The controversy concerning the correct manner of wearing the robes came
up for arbitration for the last time under Bodawpaya (1782-1819), the fifth son of
Alaungpaya. He decided in favour of orthodoxy and thenceforth all bhikkhus had to cover
both shoulders on the daily alms round. This ruling created one unified sect throughout
Myanmar under the leadership of a council of senior bhikkhus appointed by the king. These
were called the Thudhamma Sayadaws and the Thudhamma sect has survived in Myanmar down to
the present day.

Bodawpaya appointed a chapter of eight eminent bhikkhus as Sangharajas,
leaders of the Sangha, and charged them with the duty to safeguard the purity of the Order
of bhikkhus. As a direct result of the discipline and stability created by the work of
these senior bhikkhus, the Sangha prospered, and consequently scholarship flourished under
Bodawpaya's reign.

The name of the Mahasangharaja Nanabhivamsa is especially noteworthy in
this respect. Nanabhivamsa was an eminently learned bhikkhu who had proven his wisdom even
as a young man. Only five years after his ordination as a bhikkhu, he had completed a
commentary (tika) on the Nettippakarana. Eight years after full ordination, at the age of
twenty-eight, he became Sangharaja, and then Mahasangharaja, the title conferred by the
king on the highest bhikkhu in his realm. Soon after this, he wrote his well respected
"new sub-commentary" on the Digha Nikaya, the Sadhujjanavilasini. At the request
of the king, he wrote a commentary on Buddhaghosa's Jatakatthakatha and several other
treatises.[44]

The king was so devoted to the head of the Sangha that he dedicated a
"very magnificent five storied monastery" to him and later many other
monasteries as well. According to the Sasanavamsa, Nanabhivamsa was not only a scholar,
but also practised the ascetic practices (dhutanga) sitting always alone. He divided his
time between the various monasteries under his tutelage and was an indefatigable teacher
of the scriptures.

Scholarship flourished in the reign of King Bodawpaya and Myanmar was
able, for the first time, to return thanks to Sri Lanka for nurturing the religion in the
Golden Land. The bhikkhu ordination (upasampada) preserved in Myanmar was re-introduced to
Sri Lanka where the Sasana had been interferred with by an unwise king.

The Amarapura Nikaya in Sri Lanka

In the later half of the eighteenth century, the upasampada ordination
in Sri Lanka was barred to all except the members of the landed aristocracy. This was a
result of royal decree probably issued with the support of at least a section of the
Sangha. However, this was a flagrant defilement of the letter and the spirit of the
Buddha's instructions. The conferring of the upasampada ordination is dependent only upon
such conditions as the candidate being a man, free from government service, free of debt,
free of contagious diseases, and upon his having his parents' consent, etc. Members of the
lower castes had now only the possibility of becoming novices (samanera), a condition that
created dissatisfaction. A sizeable section of ordained bhikkhus also disapproved of the
royal order, but were in no position to defy it within the country. The only recourse for
those of the lower castes desiring the higher ordination was therefore to travel to other
Buddhist countries to ordain. At first, missions were sent to Thailand where Dhammazedi's
reforms lived on through the ordination conferred to Thai bhikkhus in Pago and through the
scores of Mon bhikkhus who had found refuge in Thailand from the Myanmar armies.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, Sinhalese bhikkhus
began travelling to Myanmar to find the pure ordination there. The fame of the then
Mahasangharaja of Myanmar, Nanabhivamsa, influenced their choice. Scholarship had
developed in all fields: Pali grammar, the Vinaya, the Suttanta, and the Abhidhamma.
Myanmar had, after a long period of development, become the custodian of Buddhism.

The first delegation from Sri Lanka arrived in 1800 and was welcomed
with a magnificent reception by King Bodawpaya himself. Nanabhivamsa, the wise Sangharaja,
ordained the samaneras as bhikkhus and instructed them for some time in the
scriptures.[45] On returning to Sri Lanka, they were accompanied by five Myanmar bhikkhus
and a letter from Nanabhivamsa to the Sinhalese Sangharaja. Five bhikkhus form a full
chapter and apparently the Myanmar bhikkhus were permitted to ordain bhikkhus without
class distinction. Even today, Sri Lanka possesses three schools, the Amarapura Nikaya,
the Siyama Nikaya (Thai school), and the Ramanna Nikaya.

The Amarapura Nikaya was so called because King Bodawpaya had
established his capital in Amarapura (between Mandalay and Ava) and the bhikkhus had
received their ordination there. The Ramanna Nikaya[46] was presumably founded by bhikkhus
who had received ordination from Mon bhikkhus in the tradition of the Dhammazedi reforms
and who had fled to southern Thailand from the wrath of the Myanmar kings. Both these
schools were allowed to ordain bhikkhus without discriminating against the lower classes.
Only the Siyama Sangha (the Thai ordination) continued to follow the royal command, and
ordained only novices of the higher castes as bhikkhus. Missions from Sri Lanka continued
to travel to Amarapura to consult with its senior theras and they were all given royal
patronage and sent back with gifts of the Pali scriptures and commentarial texts.

Bodawpaya's Relationship with the Sangha

Although King Bodawpaya would appear to have been a pious and devout
king, his relationship with the Sangha was somewhat problematic. He supported it at times
and even used it to extend his own glory, but at times he seemed almost jealous of the
respect the bhikkhus received from the people. He realised that the bhikkhus were not
respected out of fear, but were held in genuine esteem and affection by his subjects. His
jealousy became apparent on different occasions.

At one time, he declared that from then on the bhikkhus were no longer
to be addressed by the traditional title "Hpoungyi" meaning "The One of
Great Merit." This form of address was to be reserved for the king. Then again he
tried to confiscate land and other goods given to the Sangha and to pagodas by previous
generations. When the Sangharajas could not answer his questions to his satisfaction, he
invited the Muslim clergy for a meal to test their faith. He had heard that they were so
strict in the observance of their discipline that they would rather die than eat pork.
Unfortunately for them, they did not display great heroism as they all ate the pork
offered to them by the king. Bodawpaya is also reputed to have been beset by a form of
megalomania. He wanted to force the Sangha to confirm officially that he was the
Bodhisatta of the next Buddha to come in this world cycle, the Buddha Metteyya. On this
issue, however, the Sangha was not to be bent even in the face of royal wrath. The
bhikkhus refused, and the king was finally forced to accept defeat. Another expression of
his inflated self-esteem was the Mingun Pagoda near Sagaing. It was to be by far the
biggest temple ever built. Scores of slaves and labourers worked on its construction until
funds were depleted. However, it was never completed and remains today as a huge shapeless
square of millions of bricks.

To his credit, King Bodawpaya imposed the morality of the Five Precepts
in his whole realm and had offenders executed immediately. Capital punishment was
prescribed for selling and drinking alcohol, killing larger animals such as buffaloes,
spreading heretical views, and the smoking of opium. Bodawpaya ruled the country with an
iron fist and brought offending lay people as well as bhikkhus to heel. His successors
were benevolent, but possibly they could be so only because of the fear his rule had
instilled in the populace.

The Fate of Buddhism in Upper and Lower Myanmar

Bodawpaya's successor, Bagyidaw (1819-1837), was the first of the
Myanmar kings to lose territory to the white invaders coming from the West. The Myanmar
court was so out of touch with the modern world that it still believed Myanmar to be the
centre of the world and her army virtually invincible. Hence the king was not unduly
disturbed when the British raj, governing the Indian sub-continent, declared war on the
Kingdom of Ava in 1824 (Bagyidaw had moved the capital back to Ava). It came to a battle
near the coast in which the Myanmar general Mahabandhula achieved little or nothing
against modern British arms. The Indian colonial government occupied all of the Myanmar
coast as far south as Tenasserim in 1826 and forced the treaty of Yandabo on King
Bagyidaw. In the treaty, he was forced to accept the new borders established by the Indian
government and pay compensation to the invaders for the annexation of the coast of Lower
Myanmar.

However, Bagyidaw made a very important contribution to the development
of the Sangha and to the literature of Myanmar in general. His predecessor, Bodawpaya, had
united the Sangha by resolving the dispute relating to the draping of the robe over one or
two shoulders. Bagyidaw saw the necessity of creating stability for the Sangha. He felt
that this could be achieved to some extent by bestowing on it a sense of its own history.
He commissioned a work on the history of the religion starting from the time of the
Buddha, which was to show an unbroken succession of the pure tradition from teacher to
pupil. Its purpose was to praise the diligent theras and expose the shameless ones.

This work, the Thathana-lin-ga-ya-kyan, was composed at the king's
request by the ex-bhikkhu Mahadhamma-thin-gyan, a leading member of the committee
appointed by King Bagyidaw to compile the famous Hman-nan-ya-za-win, The Glass-palace
Chronicle, a secular history of Myanmar. The Thathana-wun-tha (Sasanavamsa)
-lin-ga-ya-kyan was completed in 1831; and in 1897, it was printed in the form of a modern
book for the first time in Yangon. Pannasami based his Sasanavamsa on this work. About
forty percent of the Sasanavamsa is straight translation from the original work, about
forty percent summaries and paraphrasing of the latter, and only some twenty percent
Pannasami's own work.[47] Pannasami states in his introduction to the Sasanavamsa that his
treatise is based on the works of the ancients (porana). The concept of mental property or
copyright had not been born and there was no moral need to refer the reader to sources
except to give authority to a statement. The only references that would lend authority to
a treatise would be the scriptures, their commentaries, and sub-commentaries, but not a
work as recent as the Thathana-wuntha-lin-ga-ya-kyan.

The preface to the original work in Myanmar explains the reason for its
compilation. The king's representative had many times pleaded with the author to write a
history of the succession of [righteous] religious teachers so that the people would not
become heretical. Apparently the king felt that the lack of a work recording the history
of the pure religion in its entirety left scope for wrong views to arise. But with an
authoritative record of the lineage of teachers, bhikkhus could not call on views of
shameless bhikkhus of the past anymore in order to support their heresies. This is exactly
what had happened again and again through the centuries and especially in the robe-draping
dispute. The ekamsikas, the one-shoulder-drapers, had repeatedly dug out obscure teachers
in order to support their point of view. This was to be made impossible once and for all.

Whether this has been successful is difficult to ascertain without a
detailed study of the developments in the Sangha since the publication of this work.
However, the fact that the original Myanmar chronicle was revised and translated into Pali
for the Fifth Buddhist Council indicates that it was by this time considered a useful tool
to put the king's authority behind a well-defined orthodox lineage, thus making it easy to
refute heresy by referring to the historical teachers.

Tharrawaddy-Min

King Bagyidaw never overcame his shock over the loss of part of his
realm. He was declared insane and was removed from the throne by Tharawaddy-Min
(1837-1846), King Mindon's father.

In the reign of Tharrawaddy-Min, another mission from Sri Lanka visited
Myanmar and was received by the Sangharaja Neyyadhammabhivamsa. Neyyadhamma instructed the
two bhikkhus and the accompanying novice in the teachings and conferred the bhikkhu
ordination on the novice. He is known for his critical emendation of the text of the
Saddhammapajjotika and its translation into Myanmar. He was also the teacher of the later
Sangharaja Pannasami, the compiler of the Sasanavamsa and one of the most influential
theras at the time of King Mindon. Neyyadhamma showed the need for a recension of at least
some of the Pali texts by editing the Saddhammapajjotika. His disciple, Pannasami, was to
preside over the recension of the entire Tipitaka as Sangharaja under King Mindon.

Pagan-Min

Tharrawaddy-Min was himself deposed because of insanity by his son
Pagan-Min (1846-52), the brother of Mindon-Min. Pagan-Min appointed Pannajotabhidhaja as
his Sangharaja. In his tenure, scholarship received encouragement as the Sangharaja
himself wrote a commentary and its sub-commentary in Myanmar on the Anguttara Nikaya.
Other works of the time, all in the vernacular, are a translation of the Saddhammavilasini
and commentaries on the Samyutta Nikaya and the Digha Nikaya. This is also the time when
the author of the Sasanavamsa appears. He started his scholarly career with the
translation into Myanmar of a commentary on the Saddatthabhedacinta. His next work was a
comparison of the existing versions of the Abhidhanappadipika and the translation of his
emended text.

In accord with the pre-eminence Myanmar had achieved in the Theravada
Buddhist world, the kings of the country became less fierce and wars were fewer. The
successors of Bodawpaya seem to have shown a genuine interest in religion as well as in
improving the administration of the country. Upper Myanmar moved into a period of peace,
which meant improved conditions for the bhikkhus.

The first half of the nineteenth century saw the translation of many
Pali texts into the Myanmar language. Almost the whole of the Suttanta was now available
in the vernacular and many commentaries and sub-commentaries on Suttanta, Abhidhamma, and
the Vinaya were composed in it. This not only made it easier for bhikkhus with limited
linguistic skills to study the texts, but also made them readily accessible to the laity.
That people in a peaceful country have more time for the study of religion is obvious and
soon Myanmar would see the first Buddhist texts printed on modern printing presses. This
made it possible for a great number of people to acquire texts relatively cheaply without
having to pay a scribe to copy them laboriously onto palm leaves.

Politically Pagan-Min was no luckier than Bagyidaw, as he lost the
provinces of Pathein (Bassein) and Yangon (Rangoon) to the British, who were ever ready to
create some pretext for war. So, in 1852, the Kingdom of Ava lost access to the sea and
became increasingly dependent on the colonial power. Like his father, Pagan-Min was
overthrown in a palace revolt. Although not a leader of the uprising, his brother Mindon
was placed on the throne. He did not execute the deposed king as was usually the case
after a revolt, but allowed him to end his days in dignity.

The Colonial Administration and the Sangha

The occupation by the British forces was of utmost significance for the
Sangha as the British administration did not grant the traditional protection afforded it
by a Buddhist ruler. In accordance with the colonial policy established in India, that the
colonial government should be strictly secular, the new lords refused to take on the role
of a Buddhist monarch and accept responsibility for the enforcing of the bhikkhus'
discipline. Without this, Buddhism in Lower Myanmar soon suffered and offending bhikkhus
went unpunished. The colonial administration would recognise its mistake only much later,
when it was too late, and when they were not able to establish control in the Sangha any
longer.[48]

King Mindon

Even today King Mindon's reign (1852-1877) is surrounded by the
mystique of a golden era in the minds of the Myanmar people. No war occurred during the
twenty-five years of his tenure and the king himself is said to have been of gentle
disposition and adverse to violence. He even declared a dislike for capital punishment
which was customarily inflicted by sovereigns for the slightest disobedience or even
disagreement.[49] He was not only held in esteem by his subjects, but even praised by a
British envoy. The colonisers' comments on the Myanmar and their kings were usually
dictated by a parochial narrow-mindedness and a simplistic view that was only widened by
contact with the conquered. Therefore General Fytche's words describing King Mindon are
all the more impressive: "Doubtless one of the most enlightened monarchs that has
ever sat on the Burmese throne.[50] He is polished in his manner, has considerable
knowledge of the affairs of state and the history and the statistics of his own and other
countries. In personal character he is amiable and kind and, according to his light,
religious."[51]

King Mindon transferred the capital from Ava to Mandalay, the last
royal capital before the British annexation of the whole of Myanmar in 1886. In the early
years of his reign, Mindon strove to improve monastic discipline. Although a system of
official investigation of complaints relating to bhikkhus' misdemeanours existed, each
king had to take his own initiative in re-establishing order in the Sangha.

Mindon found that the attitude of many members of the Sangha to their
code of conduct was exceedingly lax. He therefore wanted all bhikkhus of his dominions to
take a vow of obedience to the Vinaya rules in front of a Buddha image. He consulted the
Sangharaja who convened an assembly of mahatheras, the Thudhamma Council. As opinions
regarding the vow differed, the primate's disciple, Pannasami, had to deliver a religious
address in support of the king's views. He reasoned that vows were also taken by the
bhikkhus at the time of ordination and that if the king sincerely desired to improve the
discipline in the Order, he should be supported. All agreed, and the vow was prescribed.

The greatest challenge King Mindon had to face as a Buddhist monarch
was undoubtedly his duty to look after the spiritual welfare of his subjects not only in
his own dominions, but also in the parts of Myanmar occupied by the British. Moreover, he
and many of the leading sayadaws of his court were increasingly aware that the British
were only waiting for an occasion to annex the whole of Myanmar. Mindon's army clearly
would not be able to stand up to the might of the Indian colonial government. Therefore,
it was not only important to support religious activities in the occupied territories but
it was also essential to prepare the religion for the time when it would have to survive
without the support of a Buddhist monarch.

The British had made it clear at the outset that they would not take
over the traditional role of the Myanmar kings, that of protector of the Sasana. The new
masters' religion, Christianity, rapidly gained influence through the missionary schools.
The schools were popular because their education provided much assistance in securing a
job and favour with the colonisers. Christian religious education was a compulsory part of
their curriculum.

After the conquest of Lower Myanmar, many bhikkhus had fled north in
order to remain within the jurisdiction of the Myanmar kings. Many monasteries in British
Myanmar were left without an incumbent and whole villages were therefore bereft of the
opportunity to receive religious and general education. King Mindon, aware of this
situation, tried to convince bhikkhus to return to Lower Myanmar in order to serve their
people. The king's efforts proved successful and many bhikkhus returned to their places of
origin. But soon it became clear that without the king's ecclesiastic officials to control
the discipline of the Sangha, many bhikkhus developed a careless attitude towards their
code of discipline.

The Okpo Sayadaw, from Okpo between Yangon and Pago, had stopped many
bhikkhus on their way to Upper Myanmar when the movements of bhikkhus out of the conquered
territories was at its peak around 1855. He assembled the bhikkhus around himself teaching
that the Sangha needed no protection from the secular power if it observed the rules of
the Vinaya strictly. His monastery was the birth place of a movement of strict monastic
discipline. He also emphasised that mental volition was what really mattered in the
religion of the Buddha and that acts of worship done with an impure intention were
worthless. He obviously felt that much of the Buddhist practice had become a ritual and
that the essence had been lost. In addition to this, however, his movement also challenged
the authority of the king's Council of Sayadaws, the leaders of the unified Thudhamma
sect, when he declared their ordination was invalid due to a technicality. As a result, he
took the higher ordination anew together with his followers.

The Okpo Sayadaw was not the only critic of the Thudhamma sayadaws. In
Upper Myanmar, the Ngettwin Sayadaw criticised many religious practices and maintained
that a radical reassesment of religious teachings was necessary. The Ngettwin Sayadaw was
also a source of inspiration for the Okpo Sayadaw and other reformers. He had been the
teacher of Mindon's chief queen and had also advised the king on many occasions.
Interestingly, he was a driving force in a movement in Upper Myanmar that wanted to return
to the fundamentals of the religion, but more radically than the Okpo Sayadaw. The
Ngettwin Sayadaw, together with many other bhikkhus, left the royal city and went to live
in the forest near Sagaing. He started to preach that meditation was essential for all
bhikkhus and he required an aspirant to novicehood to prove that he had practised
meditation before he would ordain him. All the bhikkhus around him had to spend a period
of the day in meditation and he emphasised that meditation was of much greater importance
than learning. He advised lay people to stop making offerings of flowers, fruits, and
candles to Buddha images, but to meditate regularly on the Uposatha days. Of course, his
instructions that offerings to Buddha images were fruitless and merely dirtied the places
of worship, caused considerable unhappiness with the traditional Thudhamma Council and
presumably with many ordinary people. However, the Ngettwin Sayadaw never strove to form a
different sect by holding a separate ordination as did the Okpo Sayadaw. His reforms were
within the community and within a Buddhist society that was presided over by a king. The
Okpo Sayadaw had no place for royalty in his view of the world and did not hesitate to
confront the system that was still alive, though obviously doomed.

Two other important sayadaws of King Mindon's reign deserve mention:
the Shwegyin Sayadaw and the Thingazar Sayadaw. The Shwegyin Sayadawalso tried to reform
the Sangha and his movement is still very much alive and highly respected in Myanmar
today. He had studied under the Okpo Sayadaw, but when he returned to his native Shwegyin
near Shwebo in Upper Myanmar, he avoided controversy in never rebelling against the
Thudhamma Council. He introduced two new rules for his bhikkhus, that they must not chew
betel and consume tobacco after noon. He also maintained that the Sangha must regulate
itself without help from the authority, but he never doubted the validity of the
traditional ordination ceremony.

The Thingazar Sayadaw was one of the most popular of the great sayadaws
of his time. He was also part of the movement to return to the basics of the teachings and
greatly emphasised the importance of practice as opposed to mere scholarship. Though he
was greatly honoured by the king and made a member of the Thudhamma Council, he preferred
spending long periods in solitude in the forest. In the numerous monasteries built for him
by the royal family and the nobility of the country, he insisted on the practice of the
purest of conduct in accordance with the Vinaya. However, he did not involve himself in
disputes with the extreme reformers or the Thudhamma council. He became very popular
through the humorous tales he told in sermons preached in his frequent travels up and down
the country.[52]

King Mindon had no easy task. One section of the Sangha was pressing
for far reaching reforms, yet it was the king's duty to maintain a certain continuity of
the traditional ways for the benefit of the people in general. What complicated the
situation was the fact that the Sangha of Lower Myanmar felt more and more independent of
the Buddhist monarch and his Thudhamma council of senior mahatheras. This is illustrated
graphically by the Okpo Sayadaw's declaration that the Sangha needed no regulation by the
worldly power. This view gained popularity also in Upper Myanmar. Luckily, King Mindon's
devotion to Buddhism was genuine and he was not deterred by the difficulties confronting
him. He was determined not to allow the Sangha to split into factions that were openly
opposing each other. This he achieved to some extent through careful diplomacy and through
the calling of a great Synod, a Sangayana, in the royal city of Mandalay.

The Sangayana, or Buddhist Council, is the most important function of
the Buddhist religion. The first Sangayana was held during the first Rains Retreat after
the Parinibbana of the Buddha; the texts to be regarded as authentic were determined at
this time. There had been three more Sangayanas since, according to the Theravada
tradition. The council convened by the great Emperor Asoka, whose missionaries brought
Buddhism to Myanmar, probably provided the most inspiration for Mindon. The Fourth
Council, the one prior to Mindon's council, was held in Sri Lanka in the first century BC,
at the Aluvihara near Matale, for the purpose of writing down the Tipitaka, which up to
that time had been passed on orally.

King Mindon himself presided over the Fifth Buddhist Council, during
which all the canonical texts were recited and the correct form was established from among
any variant readings. The task took more than three years to accomplish, from 1868 to
1871. When the bhikkhus had completed their great project, the king had all of the
Buddhist scriptures, the Tipitaka, engraved on 729 marble slabs. The slabs were then
housed each in a separate small pagoda about three meters high with a roof to protect the
inscriptions from the elements. The small shrines were built around a central pagoda, the
Kutho-daw Pagoda, the Pagoda of the Noble Merit. To commemorate the great council, King
Mindon crowned the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon with a new Hti or spire.

The Fifth Buddhist Council and the crowning of the Shwedagon Pagoda
reminded all the people of Myanmar of the importance of their religion, as well as of the
fact that the king and the Thudhamma Council of senior monks were still the guardians of
the Sasana. The authority of the Thudhamma Council was greatly enhanced also in Lower
Myanmar through the synod. Although the British had not allowed King Mindon to attend the
raising of the new spire onto the Shwedagon, the crowning was a symbol of the religious
unity of Myanmar which persisted in spite of the British occupation. The religion was also
later to become the rallying point for the Myanmar nationalists who fought for
independence from the colonisers.

King Mindon's reign produced a number of scholarly works as well as
translations from the Pali. Neyyadhamma, the royal preceptor, himself wrote a
sub-commentary on the Majjhima Nikaya, which had been translated by one of his disciples
under his guidance. A commentary in Myanmar on the Pali Jatakas was composed by
Medhavivamsa and the compiler of the Sasanavamsa, Pannasami, put his name to a great
number of works. One of the queens of King Mindon requested Pannasami to write the
Silakatha and the Upayakatha. His teacher asked him to compose the Voharatthabheda,
Vivadavinicchaya, Nagarajuppattikatha. He also wrote a commentary on Aggavamsa's
Saddaniti. Whether all these works were composed by Pannasami or whether they were
composed under his supervision and control is difficult to assess. It is interesting to
note that a majority of his works were composed in Pali, which was no doubt an attempt to
encourage bhikkhus not to forgo Pali scholarship now that Myanmar translations were
readily available. The calling of a great Buddhist council to purify the scriptures was
part of this movement towards the revival of the study of the original texts.

During King Mindon's reign bhikkhus from Sri Lanka came to Mandalay on
several occasions to solve difficult questions of Vinaya and to receive the bhikkhu
ordination in Myanmar. After Mindon's death in 1877, his son Thibaw ascended the throne.
He was weak and of feeble intellect, and his reign was short. In 1886, he lost his kingdom
to the British empire and was exiled to India.

With the complete annexation of Myanmar by the British, an historical
era came to an end. Theravada Buddhism developed in Myanmar over more than two millennia.
The visits of the Buddha were the first brief illuminations in a country that was shrouded
in darkness. The worship of the Buddha that is thought to have resulted from these visits
and from the arrival of the hair relics, may have been merely part of a nature religion.
The pure religion could not endure for long in a country which was yet on the brink of
civilisation. Later, however, the teachings of the Buddha were brought repeatedly to those
lands by various people.

The visits of the Arahats sent out after Emperor Asoka's council are
historically more acceptable than the visits of the Buddha. Their teachings were
understood and perpetuated possibly in Indian settlements along the coast and later in
communities of people from central Asia such as the Pyu. Through their contact with India,
these cultural centres of the Pyu and Mon could remain in contact with Buddhism. At first
the important centres of Theravada Buddhism were in northern India and later in South
India and then Sri Lanka. Through repeated contact with orthodox bhikkhus abroad, the
understanding of Buddhism grew ever stronger in the minds of the people of Myanmar. The
religion was distorted dozens of times through ignorance and carelessness, but someone
always appeared to correct the teachings with the help of the mainstays of the Sasana
abroad. Gradually the role was reversed: instead of travelling abroad for advice, the
bhikkhus of Myanmar became the guardians of Theravada Buddhist teaching and their
authority was respected by all. Eventually, when Theravada Buddhism had long been lost to
India and its future was uncertain in Sri Lanka, it found a secure home in Southeast Asia,
especially in Myanmar.

Notes

1. The Mon are also called Talaing, but this term is considered to be
derogatory. It is thought to come form Telugu, a language of South Indian origin whose
script the Mon adopted. [Go back]

13. Kamboja, a country referred to by Emperor Asoka in his
inscriptions, is generally believed to be to the west of India. It could, however, also be
identical with the Cambodia of today, and it is conceivable that two Kambojas
existed. [Go back]

34. Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta, in his Corrections to Geiger's Mahavamsa and
Other Papers, offers an argument that there were in fact two Chapatas and that the one
called Saddhammajotipala, who wrote on the Abhidhamma, probably dates from the late
fifteenth century. The Sasanavamsa mentions a contemporary second Chapata who was a
shameless bhikkhu. [Go back]

40. A bhikkhu who kills a human being, has sexual relations, falsely
claims to have attained superhuman achievements, or steals automatically ceases to be a
bhikkhu and therefore even a layman can take his robes away. [Go back]

41. The forty-four Myanmar bhikkhus were ordained in Sri Lanka in a
water sima, a place of ordination floating on the water, on the Kalyani river. The first
ordination hall built by Dhammazedi near Pegu was therefore called the Kalyani Sima and
the Sinhalese ordination the Kalyani ordination. Ibid, p. 249. [Go back]

42. Niharranjan Ray, Theravada Buddhism in Burma, p. 212. [Go
back]

43. Sangharaja is a position created by the king. The holder of the
title is appointed by the monarch. It is the highest position as far as influence at the
court is concerned as the king will consult the Sangharaja in most religious matters. The
Sangharaja was usually assisted in his duty by a body (similar to a cabinet) of other
senior bhikkhus also chosen by the monarch. [Go back]

44. For more information on his work, see Bode, Pali Literature of
Burma, pp. 79-82. [Go back]

45. Bhikkhus of differing linguistic background used to communicate in
Pali. Even today a visiting Thai bhikkhu will speak with his Burmese brethren in the
language of the scriptures. [Go back]

46. The Ramannadesa is Lower Myanmar, the Mon country. [Go back]

47. For a full discussion of the relation between the
Tha-tha-na-wun-tha-lin-ga-ya-kyan and Pannasami's Sasanavamsa, see Victor B. Lieberman, A
New Look at the Sasanavamsa (S.O.A.S Bulletin, Vol. 39, 1976), Pt. 1, p. 137. [Go
back]

48. In the political struggle for independence the bhikkhus of Myanmar
played a significant role. Political activity is, of course, not normally admissible for a
bhikkhu. However, as the British administration had failed to fulfil its duties towards
Buddhism and the religion was in decline, the bhikkhus felt they had to oppose the
government in order to save their culture. When the government suddenly wanted to
re-establish authority to keep the bhikkhus in their monasteries, their effort lacked
credibility and authority and was not heeded. The colonial government had to resort to
imprisoning bhikkhus in ordinary civilian prisons, but it was too late to break the
movement of civil disobedience of the young activists, including the bhikkhus. [Go
back]

49. In times of peace kings would use a eulogistic formula instead of
giving the order for execution, like "I do not want to see his face ever again."
In times of war the orders were clearer. Sometimes even bhikkhus were executed.
Mahadhammarajadhipati (1733-52), for instance, executed the Sangharaja and a Brahman
because an important Buddha image was stolen. See The Glass Palace Chronicles (Hmannan I,
376). [Go back]

50. It was the considered policy of the Indian colonial government to
portray the Myanmar kings as cruel villains. It annexed Upper Myanmar under the pretext of
liberating a people who were oppressed by an ineffective government, much in the fashion
of the Soviets liberating Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. After the annexation of Upper
Myanmar, British publications describing the excesses of King Thibaw's court and the
relief of the liberated people amounted to a propaganda campaign. [Go back]

Niharranjan, Ray. Theravada Buddhism in Burma. University of Calcutta
1946.

Norman, K.R. Pali Literature. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.

Phayre, A.P. History of Burma. London. 1883-84. Reprint 1967.

Than Tun. Essays on the History and Buddhism of Burma. Arran 1988.

Thomas, E.J. The Life of the Buddha As History and Legend. London 1949.

Shway Yoe (G. Scott). The Burman. Reprint: Scotland 1989.

Stargardt, Janice. The Ancient Pyu of Burma. Vol. I. Cambridge 1990.

Periodicals

Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of Burma.

Bulletin de l'êcole Française d' Extreme Orient.

Epigraphia Birmanica.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Journal of the Burma Research Society.

Journal of the Pali Text Society.

Journal of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London
University).

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